A Myriad of Worlds: Dark Souls
by NumberCDLI
Summary: [Dark Souls - Fire Emblem - Golden Sun Crossover] Robin, of Fire Emblem: Another Awakening, once again finds himself waking up in an unfamiliar land. After a fateful meeting with a woman from the plains of Sacae, the two begin their journey through the unforgiving world of Dark Souls, meeting friend and foe alike along the way. [Cover art goes to Carson-Drew-It]
1. The Start of a Pilgrimage

**Author's Note: This is an alternate-timeline's sequel to my Fire Emblem: Another Awakening story, starting a little after Chapter 17, [Regicide]. It's a branching path from there, so if you haven't read that, I recommend reading up Ch17 of FE:AA before starting this story. And with that, here's the first chapter of my second fan-fic, A Myriad of Worlds.**

* * *

 _Yes, indeed. The Darksign brands the undead.  
And in this land, the undead are corralled and led to the north,  
where they are locked away, to await the end of the world…  
This is your fate._

* * *

Robin awoke with a start. He found himself propped up against a wall made of stone. The room he was in was small, covered in dirt and dust, with a metal barred door on one side. On the opposite side of the door was a small window, displaying a grey sky.

Rubbing his eyes, he let out a sigh. How in the world did he end up in a cell? He thought back on his memories.

The first thing he thought of was being woken up in a field by Chrom, Frederick and Lissa. This was a good start. He didn't seem to be suffering from amnesia like the last time. Then there was the bandit attack in Southtown, the night of the first Risen attack, meeting the future-Lucina, the time spent in town, then meeting his otherworldly counterpart, Reina, the Shepherds, the -

"Kuh…"

A sound of pain escaped Robin's throat as a sharp pain spiked through his skull. His head throbbed as he searched his memories, but he continued his brief trip down memory lane.

After meeting the Shepherds, there was the duel at Regna Ferox, Lucina nearly killing Reina, the trip back to Ylisse, meeting Gangrel and Aversa in the grey-zone -

 _Gods, this headache is getting worse. But I'm almost there…not much left to remember. I hope…_

He remembered the night of Emmeryn's assassination and how he and the Shepherds prevented it, the ambush at Breakneck Pass, receiving news of Emmeryn's capture, rescuing Phila and her pegasus knights from the Grimleal camp, and their attempt to rescue Emmeryn.

The pain in his head was almost unbearable, but Robin pressed on. There was Emmeryn's death, his desperate attempt to save her, nearly dying, punching Chrom in the face before the prince killed Mustafa, waking back up in Ferox, then the war with Plegia that was concluded with the Mad King Gangrel's death. After that, Chrom and Cordelia were engaged, and then they returned to Ylisstol where Robin fell asleep. And that was it. That was the extent of his memories before waking up here.

Groaning, he leaned his head back against the stone wall as he let his headache subside.

"Headache, I'm assuming?" a sudden voice asked.

"Uwah!" Robin let out a startled noise as he looked around the cell. He was sure that he was alone, but as his eyes adjusted to the dim lighting, he was able to see a silhouette underneath the small window. The figure was sitting just behind the beam of sunlight, making it difficult to see the person.

"Uh...hello there," Robin awkwardly greeted the stranger. "How do you do?"

Robin heard the person let out a short, dry laugh.

"I'm fine, thank you for asking," the stranger said. Judging from the voice, Robin assumed the person to be a female.

An awkward silence settled in the cell. Robin cleared his throat then asked, "Where is this place?"

"I'm afraid I know just as much as you do," the stranger answered, shaking her head. "I found you unconscious on the floor the instant I woke up."

"Ah," Robin smartly said.

Another awkward moment passed.

"My name is Robin," Robin introduced himself, desperate to clear the awkwardness in the air.

As the sun rose higher into the sky, the beam of sunlight shifted angles, casting its light on the stranger. Robin took a sharp intake of breath as he felt his cheeks heat up a little. The woman sitting down against the adjacent wall had fair skin. She was wearing a one-piece dress, the color of the sky, with two openings on either side to reveal her long, toned legs. Her hair was green, nearly identical to the color of the plains, and was tied up in a long ponytail. Her eyes were the color of emeralds as they held a sharp gaze on him.

"I am Lyn, of the Lorca tribe," she said. She raised an eyebrow slightly while staring at him. "You said your name is Robin?"

Robin nodded. He heard her name from somewhere, but from where exactly?

A light smile formed on Lyn's face. "What an odd-sounding name…"

"Huh?" Robin was taken aback. Not hurt, but just slightly surprised at the sudden comment.

"Oh, my apologies!" Lyn quickly added. "I did not think I spoke outloud. It is a good name."

Robin chuckled at her reaction. "No offense taken," he smiled.

Returning the smile, Lyn inspected his clothes. "Your clothes...they're very similar to someone that I know," she commented. "May I ask where you're from?"

Robin looked down at his clothes. He was wearing his usual attire that was almost his trademark. A coat the color of the night sky with purple and gold markings on the sides and ends respectively. Gold colored embroideries were loosely holding the hem of his cloak together. Underneath he was wearing a beige shirt with pants the of the same color, brown leather boots, and a leather belt that was wrapped around his waist.

Robin frowned, not entirely sure on how to answer Lyn's question. He was born in Plegia, which made him a Plegian, but he was practically a Ylissean. He was even the prince's, rather, the Exalt's right-hand man, so his ties to Plegia was something he didn't really pay much attention to. But then again, in his time, Validar became the new king of Plegia, making him the crown prince, which further complicated things for him.

"Ah, I'm sorry," Lyn suddenly apologized. "I understand that everyone has topics that they do not wish to speak of. My apologies."

"No, it's nothing like that," Robin quickly said. "It's just that my situation is...well...a little complicated." After a second of thought, he decided that he'd call himself a Ylissean. "I'm from the Halidom of Ylisse, located on the continent of its namesake, Ylisse.

Lyn's brow furrowed. "Ylisse? I'm afraid I've never heard of it. Is it across the sea?"

It was Robin's turn to be confused. He remembered Lyn introduced herself as 'Lyn of the Lorca tribe", but he never heard of the Lorca.

"Before that, may I ask where you from?" Robin asked. "Knowing that may help out a little."

"Of course," Lyn sat up straight. "I hail from the Sacae Plains, located in Lycia."

A shock went through Robin's head. "Lycia?!"

"Y-yes," Lyn answered, startled by Robin's sudden outburst. "Is there something wrong?"

"B-but…that means…"

A wry smile formed on Robin's face. "Oh, this is fan-friggin-tastic? Really? This happened to me again? Unbelieveable!" he laughed at his Fate's twisted humor.

"I'm sorry, I do not think I follow," Lyn cautiously said.

"Sorry, I'm just laughing at my poor luck," Robin said. "You said you're from Lycia, correct?"

"That is correct."

Robin took in a deep breath. "Now, trust me when I say that this is going to sound like a drunk fool's ramble, but...I'm from a time long after yours - the future."

Lyn's eyes widened in shock. "Th-that's - "

" - not impossible," Robin quickly cut in. "It happened to me, this being the second time, actually, and in my world, someone came back in time herself to prevent a grim future."

Lyn shook her head in disbelief. "You're implying that people can travel through time?"

"I'm not implying it; I'm stating it," Robin corrected. "This is why I said that my words would sound like a drunk fool's ramble."

A moment of silence passed with Robin watching Lyn as she tried to wrap her head around Robin's words.

"The reason why I say I'm from a time long after yours is because Lycia is in the historic textbooks of my time," Robin continued. "And if memory serves, you are Lady Lyndis, heir to the throne of Caelin, correct? Legend says that you fought against an army with nothing more than a small band of fighters to rescue your grandfather."

Lyn gave Robin a small smile. "It was hardly an army. Most of the fights were against small bands of knights and bandits. Besides, I had the help of an amazing tactician to guide us through that peril without a single casualty. I owe it all to him."

Robin nodded. "The genius tactician Mark…"

Lyn looked at Robin. "You know of him?"

"I don't think there's a single tactician in my world who hasn't heard of him," Robin laughed. "He's the person who I strive to be like; to be able to keep my friends alive no matter how badly the odds are stacked against us."

"You're a tactician?" Lyn asked, slightly surprised.

"Mhmm! Robin, tactician to the Shepherds of Ylisse, at your service," Robin proudly said.

"So that's why you felt so familiar…" she muttered under her breath, just low enough for Robin to not hear her words. "Tell me, do all tacticians end up unconscious in an unfamiliar land?"

"Uhh...I don't think so?" Robin answered. "Though, this would be my third time waking up unconscious in a random area. Twice was the same place in Ylisse, in the middle of a field. Why do you ask?"

Lyn shook her head. "No particular reason. It's just that I found Mark lying unconscious in the middle of the Sacaen Plains." Then she looked up at Robin with a confused look. "Wait...Shepherds? You tend sheep?" Lyn asked, causing laughter to erupt from Robin.

"That was my exact reaction when I was told of them," Robin laughed. "In a sense, yes, if you would consider the people to be the sheep and us the shepherds," he explained, further adding to Lyn's confusion. "The Shepherds are more along the lines of a group of handpicked fighters that are led by our prince and Exalt, Chrom. Though, to be honest, we're more of a band of ragtag misfits than anything."

Lyn smiled. "That sounds very much like my group of friends. One of them decided to name our group Lyndis Legion on what I think was a whim, which then became stuck as our name. Not that I mind, though it does make me sound a little conceited."

"What? No way!" Robin laughed. "Sometimes, the people would refer to us as Chrom's Vigilantes since he was the one the created the Shepherds."

"The Shepherds sound like an amazing group," Lyn sighed, wistfully staring up at the ceiling.

"They are," Robin agreed. "The Shepherds are my family, and I couldn't be prouder to have been able to stand by them."

The two sat in silence as they reminisced on their past adventures.

"Well then, shall we get moving?" Robin piped. "I'm not entirely too fond of wasting time away in this cell."

"I'm afraid we're stuck in here," Lyn said, motioning towards the door. "I tried opening the door earlier, but it's locked. I don't suppose you have a lockpick, would you?"

Robin gave Lyn a confident grin. "For a door such as this, I don't need a lockpick."

"What do you mean?" Lyn asked.

To answer her question, Robin got up and walked to the door of their cell. Gathering mana into his hand, he was soon holding a white hot flame the size of his fist. Placing the flame onto the lock, the metal melted in an instant. Extinguishing the flame with a flick of his hand, he looked back at Lyn.

"Easy," he grinned.

"I did not know you were a magic user," Lyn said as she walked up to Robin with newfound interest.

"Well, I had to find a way to defend myself as I was fighting," Robin shrugged, trying the door.

The door rattled, but stayed shut nonetheless.

"Easy, right?" Lyn teased.

If looks could kill, and if the door was a living being, Robin's glare would have drained the door's life. But alas, he had no such luck.

"You stupid door…" Robin muttered, raising his hand.

With a quick burst of magic, Robin blasted the dorm off to hinges, followed by another burst to prevent the door from clattering on to the floor.

"Shall we?" Robin tilted his head, gesturing to the long torch-lit hallway in front of them.

As the two jail escapees walked down the hall, Robin heard dull thuds from behind wall to their right. It sounded like footsteps, but was too heavy for man.

"I think that's one difference between you and Mark," Lyn suddenly said.

"Hm?"

Lyn gave Robin a curious look. "You said you learned how to use magic in order to defend yourself."

"Uh huh."

"So I take it that you were on the front lines as you fought with the Shepherds?"

"Yup."

Lyn nodded, looking down the hall.

"That's something that Mark did not do," Lyn quietly said. "Ah, but don't get me wrong! Mark didn't watch from afar; rather, he'd usually be amongst our group during our skirmishes, guiding us. He never actually fought, but he gave off a...certain feeling - like an aura of power."

Robin nodded. A tactician being on the front lines was almost unheard of. By purposefully placing themselves in the front lines, any smart commander would know to take out the tactician quickly. That was the danger that a tactician would pose and be in.

At the end of the hall, the two walked into another room. A small walkway was wrapped around the very sides of the wall while the center of the room was pool of water that was just above ankle-height. In the center of the pool sat a single person. He was wearing nothing but rags, revealing his skeletal frame, and his skin was a sickly reddish-pink color. His head was hanging down as his rhythmic breathing caused his shoulders to rise and fall repeatedly.

"Do you think that man is okay?" Lyn asked, eyeing the person in the pool.

"I'm not sure…" Robin muttered.

Dropping into the pool with a small splash, Robin cautiously approached the man. Another splash from behind him told him that Lyn had also dropped down to follow him. Robin felt the freezing cold water through his boots as he waded towards the man. The water impeded his movement by just a fraction, but it wasn't anything that would bother him.

"Excuse me, sir?" Robin called out. "Are you alright?"

Reaching out, Robin lightly tapped the man on the shoulder. The man's head suddenly snapped up, and Robin quickly took a step back as Lyn let out a small gasp of horror.

The man's face was something that was out of a horror story. His eyes, or lack of, were just gaping sockets of flesh. In the center of each socket, where the pupil would be located, was nothing but a small orange-red light. As Robin looked further down the man's body, if it could even be called a man, a grotesque mass of veins could be seen spreading out from where his heart was located.

"Wha - what…"

The words Robin tried to say failed to come out as he was frozen in shock. He was reminded of the Risen from his world, but at least they were more pleasant to look at, even if by just a tiny margin.

The...thing just continued to stare at Robin. Its jaw dropped, revealing a set of terribly crooked teeth. A guttural sound came from the depths of its throat, then it dropped its head again, losing interest in Robin. Robin had half a mind to draw his sword and end the pitiful creature's life, but his arm refused to move.

"Robin?" Lyn placed her hand on his shoulder. "We should go."

"R-right," Robin said, tearing his eyes away from the Risen-like person. Shuddering, he walked away and followed Lyn towards the room's exit that was on the adjacent wall of the hall they came from.

Just through the doorway, Lyn and Robin found himself standing in a very small and circular room. Only, this wasn't a room. It was the bottom of what seemed to be a water-well, judging from the wet floor and moss growing on the corners. A multitude of metal bars were protruding from one side of the wall, leading straight up.

"Wait," Robin said as Lyn started to go up the makeshift ladder. "Let me go first."

Lyn arched an eyebrow. "It's fine. If there is danger at the top, I can defend myself even with one arm."

Robin scratched the back of his head as his cheeks turned pink. "That's not what I'm talking about though…"

"What do you - "

Lyn's cheeks flushed as she realized what Robin was talking about. Her one-piece flowed freely from the waist down, which would reveal nearly everything were she to climb up the ladder first. Hopping off of the ladder, she averted her gaze.

"Th-then...if you would." Lyn gestured to the ladder.

Knowing that saying anything else would make the situation even more awkward than it already was, Robin simply nodded before climbing up the ladder.

 _ **I'm getting an awful sense of deja vu. Aren't you?**_

 _Alternis? You're here too?_

 _ **I'm in YOUR head, remember? I go wherever you go.**_

 _Riiiight…_

 _ **In any case, starting off on the wrong foot when meeting a girl? Really, Robin? You managed to do this again?**_

 _At least it was a good start before._

 _ **Ah, yes. A casual talk in a jail cell. What a lovely setting for an introduction.**_

 _I...you...damn it…_

 _ **Heh.**_

Grumbling, Robin reached the top of the ladder. There was nothing there aside from a narrow doorway leading into what looked like a courtyard.

Suddenly, a deafening roar split the air, followed by a crash. Robin heard what he assumed to be part of the structure collapse as dust fell from the ceiling above him.

Hiding behind the doorframe, Robin counted his heartbeats. On the seventh beat, Robin decided to move. Slowly peeking around the corner of the doorway, Robin saw nothing but a giant double door that was nearly three times his size and a coiled sword sticking out of a small pile of ash. Double checking the area for any signs of danger, Robin stepped to the edge of the well.

"Lyn, it's safe," Robin called out, peering down the well.

The green haired woman nodded before she started climbing up the ladder. Making space for Lyn, Robin stepped out into the courtyard. Grey clouds blanketed the sky overhead and a chilly wind blew through the area. Robin found himself walking towards the coiled sword in the pile of ash - almost as if he was drawn towards the sword.

"Robin?" Lyn called out from behind him. "What is it?"

Robin wordlessly stared down at the coiled sword. The entirety of the sword was a rusty orange-brown color with the hilt pointing up. The handguard was in the shape of an X, and the blade was twisted beyond use as it was embedded in the ground. Where the sword met the pile of ash, feeble embers could be seen.

"I-I don't know…" Robin admitted.

Taking a closer look, Robin saw that the pile of ash wasn't just ash alone. The majority of the small pile consisted of bones...bones that could be found on a human. He should've been startled by this, yet Robin slowly extended his hand over the pile of ash. He focused his attention on the embers at the base of the sword.

Suddenly, as if reacting to Robin's gaze, the ashen pile caught flame.

"Woah."

Robin took a step back. He hadn't channeled any mana to ignite the fire, and yet here it was, blazing all on its own. Strangely enough, as he stared at it, he felt a sense of comfort from the fire. Surely it wouldn't hurt to just sit down for a moment, to rest, to just sit down in front of the fire.

"Robin?"

Lyn's voice brought him back to reality.

"S-sorry," Robin blinked. "I uhh…I spaced out for a while."

"It's because of the fire, isn't it?" Lyn guessed. "I felt it too. It just seems really...alluring."

Robin nodded. The two of the lost track of time of how long they stared into the fire.

"We should go," Lyn quietly said.

"Yeah…"

Tearing his eyes away from the fire, Robin walked towards the giant set of doors. It was made of wood, but looked to rotting. Metal bars were bolted onto the wood to keep it from falling apart. Placing his hands on the doors, Robin pushed. It didn't budge an inch.

"Damn, that's heavy…" Robin muttered.

Mustering a little more strength, he pushed again, and the doors slowly started to move. Dust fell off the door as it loudly creaked open. With one last push, Robin threw the doors open into...another courtyard. Only this time, there was a tiled flooring in a large rectangular form in the center. Pillars ringed the central flooring and large clay vases were scattered around the courtyard. Straight ahead on the opposite wall was another set of doors made of metal.

Looking up, Robin saw a jutting high above the wall on the other side of the courtyard, almost like a platform where a leader of sorts would stand and speak. Maybe that's what this place was? Ruins of a temple for a lost religion? Moving his eyes even higher, Robin noticed that the room he wasn't in a courtyard at all. Courtyards don't have ceilings, and the ceiling for the large room he was currently in was caved in, revealing the gloomy sky above.

"Is something the matter?" Lyn asked, stepping next to Robin.

"No, just trying to figure out where we are and what this place is," Robin replied, walking forward towards and onto the central flooring of the room.

"ROBIN!"

Lyn suddenly yanked him back by his collar just as a monstrosity landed where Robin was a second ago.

"What - what is that thing!"

Standing in front of Lyn and Robin was what could only be called monster. Towering over them, Robin couldn't help but feel like an infant in the face of a powerful knight. Its wrinkly skin was a leathery green with the area around the stomach being a paler color. Stone-like protrusions could be seen throughout its body, and on its back was a pair of tiny bat wings.

Its legs seemed a little too short for its size, but Robin could see its powerful muscles behind the leathery skin. Like its legs, the monster's arms were too short. The terrifying part about it was that it was holding a weapon that seemed to be a cross between a mace and a hammer, with the head being half the monster's size.

Two beady red eyes peered right into Robin, sending a shiver down his spine. Its face was quite an ugly sight. Large stone horns similar to those found on elk protruded from its head. Where the nose would be was nothing more than upturned skin, and its mouth was lined with large yellow teeth. Two enormous fangs could be seen hanging from its mouth.

As he took in all these little details about the monster, Robin couldn't help but think of a single thing.

"That thing is freaking FAT!"

Lyn let out a laugh despite her current situation. Here she was, facing a monster that was over five times her height, and she was laughing from a single line from Robin, a man she met not even an hour ago.

"Robin, this is not the time!" Lyn tried to make her voice stern as possible.

"What?! It's true!" Robin grinned. "Just look at the thing!"

Lyn didn't want to, but she looked anyways. What Robin said rang true as she watched the monster's belly jiggle with the slightest of movements. Due to that, she was too late in noticing the monster swing its weapon down on the two. Its size was large enough that it was more than sufficient to easily crush them both with room to spare. Then she felt Robin shove her away to prevent her from getting crushed.

Rolling to her feet, she saw Robin jump on the monster's hammer with his sword in hand and run up the length of the weapon. Grabbing onto one of the monster's many stone protrusions, Robin quickly climbed onto the monster's back, and plunged his sword into the back of its neck.

The monster roared in pain and threw Robin off its back. Using the monster's pain to her advantage, Lyn kicked off the ground and her beloved sword, Mani Katti, in a flash across the monster's belly. Thick red blood splattered onto the ground from the wound, but it could hardly be considered a deep cut.

The moment her feet touched the ground, she jumped backwards just as the monster's hammer slammed down in front of her. As the monster started to bring its hammer back up, Lyn ran forward, sliding between its legs while spinning on her toes, slicing apart the monster's ankles. She quickly rolled left and then right, dodging the monster's stomping feet as she made her way clear of the monster. Rising to her feet, Lyn quickly jumped back to put some distance between her and the monster when it suddenly reeled in pain. Its roar shook the entire area, sending a wave of pain through her ears and head.

The monster then ignored Lyn as it turned to its left, swinging its hammer down on Robin, who frantically rolled out of the way. Dodging the next couple of swings by a hair's breadth, Robin made his way over to Lyn, laughing.

"What did you to piss it off so much?" Lyn asked him.

Robin sheepishly grinned at her. "I uhh…may have accidentally by chance cut off its tail…" he meekly said, holding up a long, leathery green colored stub of a tail in his hand. "This might just be me, I don't think it liked me cutting off its tail."

As if to answer Robin, the monster let out a low growl as it glared at the tactician.

"I don't think it's just you that thinks that," Lyn said.

With a roar, the monster started to swing its weapon in a large sweeping motion from its left. With the intent to dodge, Lyn jumped diagonally backwards and to her right when the monster suddenly brought its weapon around the other way.

 _A feint?!_

Lyn could only watch hopelessly as she was still in mid-jump as the oversized hammer drew closer and closer to her. Time seemed to slow down to a snail's pace as she watched Robin step in front of her. She watched as Robin stab his sword into the ground and a transparent wall honeycombed out in front of him to create barrier.

The barrier was succeeded in halting the monster's swing. For a mere moment. Robin's face twisted in pain as the monster's hammer shattered the barrier like glass and slammed into Robin's chest, sending him backwards colliding with Lyn.

The collision threw the two of them back and towards the corner of the room. Lyn braced herself to slam into the wall, but the impact never came. Instead, she continued to fly backwards and into a narrow hallway. A set of stairs appeared beneath her. Clutching Robin tightly, she closed her eyes as her back hit the stairs, sending the two tumbling across the floor. Lyn felt Robin tumble out of her grasp, a sharp pain followed by a cracking sound from her ribs, and then her vision went black.

* * *

"Ugh…"

Lyn groaned in pain. Her body ached all over as she slowly opened her eyes. She was lying down on the ground with a soft cloth wrapped around her shoulders. A small fire, identical to the one she saw earlier, sword, ash, and all, was flickering in front of her, filling her body with a sense of warmth.

"I see you're awake now."

Lyn looked towards the source of the voice. Robin was sitting across the fire, resting his arm on his knee. She tried to sit up but winced as a sharp pain shot up her sides.

"Careful," Robin said. "I wouldn't be surprised if you have a couple of broken bones from taking the brunt of the landing."

Lyn slowly lowered herself back onto the ground. From where she was, she surveyed the room. It was similar to the room that they were in earlier with the creepy husk of a man, and light was shining in from a doorway across the walkway they were on

"I'm sorry," Robin suddenly apologized.

"For what?" Lyn asked, not sure why he was apologizing.

"Barrier magic wasn't never my forte, but even so, had I been just a little faster, you wouldn't have gotten hurt," Robin said as he cast his eyes over to the fire.

"Don't apologize," Lyn said. "You did nothing wrong. In fact, it's my fault for not having read that feint from the monster."

She shot up, instantly regretting her decision as she let out a cry of pain.

"What the - why?" Robin was taken aback at her not-so-smart decision.

Ignoring both her pain and Robin's question, Lyn asked her own. "What about that monster? What about you?"

Robin blinked. "What about me?"

She stared at his chest. "You got hit directly by the monster's hammer, yet you seem to be perfectly fine."

"Oh, that?" Robin shrugged. "You know my cloak that you're currently wearing?"

Lyn just noticed that Robin was missing his cloak. She looked down to see the very cloak that he was missing wrapped around her shoulders.

"Yeah, that one," Robin grinned. "Contrary to its looks, my cloak has surprisingly good defenses. It's virtually indestructible."

Feeling the fabric, she raised an eyebrow in mild surprise. It seemed like any ordinary fabric that one could find anywhere, but there was a mysterious feeling to it that she couldn't place.

"Hm? I'm impressed you noticed it," Robin praised.

Lyn gave Robin a puzzled look.

"I take it that you feel a strangeness to the fabric, right?" Robin asked. "That would be the effect of reinforcement magic," Robin explained. "I laced the fabric with my own mana while coating it at the same time, strengthening it. The result is a piece of clothing that's pretty much indestructible and more resilient than the strongest of armors. Though, I still suffered from a few broken bones."

Lyn looked back down at Robin's cloak in amazement. "That's quite an impressive magic."

"In a sense, yes," Robin said. He didn't sound the least bit presumptuous. "The major downside to it is that I can't apply it to any other piece of armor or clothing."

"Why's that?"

"In order to cast such a powerful reinforcement magic, I need to have a very high affinity with said item," Robin explained. "The only reason why I was able to apply the magic to my coat is because I've had it for as long as I can remember. If I tried it on anything else, it would only last a short while before breaking, such as this sword here." Robin reached down to his side and pulled out his sword, or at least what was left of it.

There was almost nothing left of the blade. All Robin was holding was the hilt and a blade that was shorter than a fruit knife. The ends of the blade was jagged and dull, and what was once a regal longsword etched with silver was now nothing more than a broken straight sword. After having been with her sword, Mani Katti, for so long, seeing a sword in such a state pained Lyn.

"This is the result of two things," Robin said, casually tossing the sword hilt into the air and catching it again. "One, having used reinforcement magic on it with the improper influx of mana, and two, having used it as a catalyst for a barrier spell."

Lyn shook her head in awe. "The extend of your knowledge on magic far exceeds anything that I've seen in my time."

"Isn't that to be expected? The magic used many ages ago would lay a foundation as to what magic becomes in the future," Robin reasoned. "Unless, of course, the use of magic greatly dwindles to a point where it becomes non-existent. Fortunately, that didn't happen in my world."

Lyn nodded at his words. The two sat in silence as they stared into the fire.

"How's your side?" Robin asked.

Gently placing her hand on her ribs, she widened her eyes in surprise as she felt none of the pain from earlier. It didn't make any sense; fractured bones would take a lengthy amount of time to heal, and yet hers were mended in only a few minutes.

"Judging from your reaction, I guess they're healed," Robin chuckled. "It's something to do with this fire." He gestured at the little bonfire in between the two. "There's something about it that has healing properties from just being near it. Don't ask me how. It just does."

Lyn gave a curious look at the fire. After a moment, she slammed her fist into the ground, shredding the skin off her knuckles.

"What the - what're you doing?" Robin asked, alarmed.

Staying silent, Lyn moved her hand next to the fire. As she watched, the blood quickly stopped leaking out as her skin mended itself before her very eyes. Within moments, there was no sign of any injury.

"Jeez," Robin groaned. "At least warn me before you do something so reckless." Standing up, Robin dusted himself off before extending his hand to her. "If you're feeling better, shall we get going?"

"Sorry, but I just needed to test it out," Lyn apologized, taking Robin's hand. "Your coat." She added, holding Robin's cloak in her hand.

"Thank you," Robin said, taking back his trademark cloak and throwing it on a well-practiced motion.

The two walked towards the doorway on the other side of the room. They stepped into a long hallway that was at a slight upwards incline. Robin guessed that there was once a roof to the hallway based off the curved stones at the top of the walls and a mess of rubble scattered throughout the hall. The gloomy sky above was seen above, and at the end of the hall was another figure dressed in rags.

"Hey…isn't that the person we saw back at - WOAH!"

Robin quickly brought his hand up and caught a wooden stick that sliced through the air an instant. Upon a closer look, Lyn realized that the wooden stick was an arrow, not even an inch away from piercing Robin's chest. Glaring at the hollowed figure at the end of the hall, Lyn's eyes flared with anger. She sprinted down the hall at an alarming speed. The hollowed man quickly turned and tried to run away but was nowhere fast enough. The green-haired swordswoman was on him in an instant, and in a single motion, drew her sword and sliced the man in two.

Letting out a breath, she flicked the blood off her blade before returning it into its sheath. She watched as the man's upper body feel to the floor, shortly followed by its lower half.

"Damn, you run fast!" Robin laughed as he jogged over to where Lyn was standing.

"I'm sorry," Lyn looked downcast. "I did not mean to rush ahead, but when I saw you in danger, my body acted on its own."

"Ahaha, no worries," Robin laughed. "It makes me happy that you care so much about me in such a short time."

"It's just…you remind me so much of Mark that I couldn't help but feel a little protective of you," Lyn wistfully said. "I would do that all the time in our journey."

The two started walking again. They turned left as it was the only way to go since the hallway turned left, walked up a short flight of stairs, and came across…

"Is that…fog?" Robin wondered.

He stood in front of the small wall of grey fog that was in front of the doorframe. Raising his hand, he reached his hand out to touch the mysterious grey wall.

"Robin, be careful," Lyn voiced her concern.

The fog felt cool to the touch. It felt solid, yet gaseous at the same time. He applied a little pressure into his hand, and his hand easily slipped through. His curiosity getting the better of him, Robin stepped into the fog wall in full.

For a moment, he saw nothing but grey as wisps of smoke curled around his body. Then the fog quickly dissipated, vanishing into thin air.

"Huh," Robin frowned, disappointed at the fog wall's disappearance.

"Robin, look!" Lyn pointed past Robin.

In front of Robin was a barred doorway. A large part of it was collapsed, its debris blocking nearly half of the space. But that wasn't what Lyn was pointing at. Past the debris, past the bars, was a man in a full suit of armor collapsed on another pile of debris. Light poured in from a hole in the ceiling, illuminating the knight.

Hearing Lyn's voice, the knight slowly turned his head to look at Robin and Lyn. He weakly raised his arm to reach out to them only to have it limply fall back down.

"Robin, we need to help him!" Lyn said, running past him.

"Right!" Robin followed Lyn.

They followed the hallway for a way in. All they would was a set of stairs leading away from the enclosed room the knight was in. Running back to the barred doorway, Robin looked up and down for the lock. There was none. If there was, it was most likely buried beneath the rubble, and it didn't look like the knight had a lot of time left.

Growing impatient, Robin conjured up flames in his hand and grabbed onto two of the iron bars blocking his path. The metal quickly heated, glowing a bright orange under Robin's flames. As to why he didn't do this in the first place, he didn't know, but Robin wrenched the heated metal aside, creating a large enough gap for him and Lyn to slip through.

Upon closer inspection, the knight was even in worse condition than Robin feared. His rounded helmet had multiple dents all over it, and his visor was lowered at a crooked angle, and a tattered red scarf was loosely wrapped around his neck. A regal blue cloth lined with gold was worn over a set of chainmail armor with an elaborate golden design, most likely his house banners, etched on the center of armor. A battered pauldron was barely hanging on his left shoulder, and his arm was bent at a terrible angle. He was clinging onto a medium sized blue shield with his left hand. On the shield was the same golden crest that was on his armor. In his main hand was a straight sword with an elaborate golden hilt with a pale blue gem placed in the center of the guard.

All of this showed that the knight was most likely a high ranking knight, maybe an elite, in his homeland. In Ylisse and many other parts of his world, only ranked officers would bear the standard of their house, For this knight to have both a set of armor and shield with his house banners and a regal sword only proved as such.

The knight turned his head to look at Robin, his helmet rattling as it moved.

"Oh, you…you're no Hollow, are you?" the knight rasped. "Thank goodness… I'm done for...I'm afraid…my insides are are damaged… I'll die soon..."

"Don't say that!" Lyn yelled as she knelt down next to Robin. "Don't give up yet!"

The knight let out a chuckle. "I'm blessed to have met such kind souls...in such a bleak area… I have a request to ask of you…will you hear me out?"

Lyn nodded without hesitation. Letting out a small sigh of relief, the knight's sword clattered to the floor.

"I regret to say this, but I have failed in my mission," the knight coughed. "But…perhaps you…you can keep the torch lit… There is an old saying in my family…"

" _In thine exodus from the Undead Asylum,  
Maketh pilgrimage to the land of Ancient Lords.  
When thou ringeth the Bell of Awakening,  
The fate of the Undead thou shalt know."_

A shock shot through Robin's head. He felt as if he should know this, but why? This was the first time he heard of this - no…no it wasn't. He HAD heard of it before, read it actually. Back in his world, in an abandoned library located on a small island just off of Chon'sin. The very library where he came across Light Magic.

"Well…now you know…" the knight said. Just from a slight change is posture, Robin sensed as though a heavy burden was taken off of the knight's shoulders as he let out another sigh of relief. "Now I can die with hope in my heart…"

Lyn shook her head. "Don't…don't say such things!" Her shoulders were shaking as she clenched her fists. "You can't give up! Not yet!"

"That's right, it's not too late," Robin agreed, standing to his feet. "You're going to survive. I'll make sure of it."

Much to the knight's discomfort, Robin picked him up easily. Carefully placing him around his shoulders in a fireman's carry, Robin made his way out of the small room, to the right, and peered over a small balcony. Beneath them was the first courtyard they came across, and in the center of that was coiled sword sticking out of a pile of ash. Without hesitation, he jumped as Lyn let out an alarmed yell from behind him.

Casting a small gust of wind from his feet, Robin slowed his descent as his feet lightly touched the floor. Walking towards the meek fire, Robin gently laid the knight down next to the flames.

The knight took a shaky breath as he turned his head to look at the flames.

"Ah…a bonfire…" the knight croaked. "To think such a thing would be placed in such a godforsaken place…" the knight looked up at Robin. "Thank you, stranger. You've shown me a kindness that I cannot ever hope to repay."

"You can thank me by not dying," Robin smiled. "May I ask you something?"

"Of course."

"The one that put you in this state…was it…?"

The knight nodded before Robin even finished speaking. "The Asylum Demon. A grotesque monster that was born of the Flames of Chaos long ago. Now it acts as this place's warden, mercilessly crushing anyone that tries to leave."

"I see…thank you," Robin thanked the knight as he rose to his feet.

He was hoping to avoid a confrontation with what the knight called the Asylum Demon for the second time. Their first encounter ended up with both him and Lyn being literally thrown out of the fight with a broken bones. Since the demon had fallen on them, Robin took a guess that the wounded knight was on the rooftops for some reason when the demon had smashed him through the ceiling, which caused him to end up in such a battered state in the room where there seemed to be no entrance.

A metallic clang reverberated through the air from Robin's right. Looking over, he saw a small gateway open with Lyn stepping through. He hadn't seen that door the first time he was here. Judging from where Lyn was before, Robin guessed that the door Lyn just opened up would lead back up to the second floor of the Undead Asylum.

"Hey, guess what?" Lyn grinned. "I found a shortcut!"

She made her way over to the knight, handing him his dropped sword and satchel.

"I noticed," Robin deadpanned. "So, I've good news and bad news."

"Let's hear it," Lyn said, her brow furrowing.

"Turns out the giant thing we fought earlier is a demon that's guarding this place, acting as its warden," Robin casually said. "The only way out of this place is to kill it."

Lyn frowned. "...and the good news?"

"That was the good news," Robin sighed. "Bad news is I don't see a way that we can kill the thing. Its skin is tough, it had a ridiculous amount of strength, nearly killing all three of us earlier, and to top it all off, it's freakishly huge."

"And fat," Lyn added with a small smile.

"Ha...ahaha...ow…" the wounded knight weakly laughed. "It is indeed fat."

"Not to mention I broke my sword in a last-ditch effort to protect us both," Robin added, holding up what remained of his sword. "Well, not that it was my main weapon in the first place. Still useful, though."

"If...if you need a weapon…" the knight struggled to sit up, unlatching his regal sword. "...take mine. It was crafted by the finest smith from my homeland, Astora, and is blessed with divine magic."

"I couldn't possibly take such a sword!" Robin hastily said.

"Please," the knight urged. "A knight's honor is worth more than his sword. It would not do for the ones that saved my life to go without a weapon."

Scratching his head, Robin hesitantly took the sword.

"My deepest of thanks," Robin said.

It was indeed imbued with divine magic. Robin had been around Chrom and Lucina's Falchion long enough to know what a divine weapon felt like. Although this sword from Astora didn't give off the same feeling, Robin could still tell that there was a powerful magic inside it due to his keen sixth sense.

"We'll return soon," Lyn promised the knight. "After we kill that demon."

"I won't be going anywhere," the knight said with dry humor. "Give the Asylum Demon one from me, will you?"

"Consider it done," Robin grinned at the knight.

Robin and Lyn walked past the wounded knight and towards the large wooden doors that Robin opened earlier. Only this time, in replacement of the door was another wall of grey fog.

"Nuh uh, not this time," Lyn placed a firm hand on his shoulder. "You got to go through the fog last time. Now it's my turn."

Grumbling, Robin stepped aside to let Lyn go first. He watched as she lightly pressed her hand against the wall of fog, then the green swordswoman vanished into the grey wall. Robin waited for the fog to disperse like last time, but it didn't seem like it was going to vanish anytime soon. Uneasiness coming over him, Robin quickly ran through the fog. Appearing on the other side, he looked up just as a familiar oversized hammer was descending on him.

Letting out a strangled yelp, Robin rolled to the side, narrowly dodging the demon's great hammer. His head smashed into one of the many clay pots that were scattered around, but he shook off the minor pain as he rolled to his feet. He saw Lyn hack away at the Asylum Demon's chest, but the demon paid her no mind as its red eyes shone maliciously at Robin.

"Oh, come on!" Robin complained, dodging another hammer swing. "Are you still mad that I cut off your tail?"

The demon roared in anger. It swung its great hammer down again at Robin, who easily jumped out of the way. Jumping onto the hammer, Robin once again ran up the length of it. Learning from its past fight, the demon made a grab at Robin with its free hand. Seeing the giant hand coming at him, Robin stepped off the hammer's handle, causing the demon to grasp at nothing as Robin used his falling momentum to swing his body up and right in front of the demon's face. Twisting his body, Robin drew the Astora sword and at the demon's upturned face in a single motion, drawing a red gash over the demon's right eye.

"That was for…huh…I never got the knight's name…" Robin murmured.

Unlike Robin's silver sword from earlier, the Astora sword seemed to have no trouble slicing through the demon's tough skin. Perhaps with this sword, killing the Asylum Demon wouldn't be impossible. Touching down the ground, Robin felt a foot press down on his back before it vanished. Turns out Lyn used Robin's lowered posture as a footstool.

Leaping off of Robin's back, the swordswoman plunged her sword through the demon's neck before swinging around to its backside. A stream of red blood gushed out of the open wound like a miniature waterfall of red.

Letting out a cry of pain, the Asylum Demon spread its tiny wings, throwing Lyn onto the ground as it took to the skies.

"You've got to be kidding me!" Robin exclaimed. "Those tiny wings can lift that fatass into the air?!"

"How're we going to reach that?" Lyn asked.

"Why are you asking me?"

"You're the tactician."

"…right…"

Robin quickly formulated a plan in his head. It was a little risky, but it'd work. He explained his idea to Lyn, who agreed without hesitation.

"I trust you as much as I trust Mark, which is a lot," Lyn said, giving a small smile.

"Right then," Robin couldn't help but feel flattered.

Putting his sword into its scabbard, Robin lowered his posture while clasping his hands together in front of him. His plan: Lyn leaps off of his hands as he gives her a boost by both a push and wind magic to propel her upwards as she cuts off the demon's wings. The demon passed the ceiling already, so they had to act quickly on Robin's plan, but a multitude of things could go wrong. The demon could bat her aside, move out of the way, or Lyn could completely miss altogether. But Lyn's confidence in Robin made him feel like they'd succeed.

Lyn took a couple steps back for a running start, then ran at Robin in a full sprint. Robin didn't think of when he should lift his arms to give her a boost; he just relied on gut feeling as he had done many times in the past, and it didn't fail him. There was no awkward pause between Lyn leaving the ground and into the air, and Robin threw Lyn upwards as hard as he could while casting a gust of wind to help propel her.

Lyn shot upwards at a speed that would make the fastest of pegasi jealous. Holding her sword in a two handed grip, she readied herself to swing Mani Katti to slice off the demon's stubby wings. She drew closer and closer to the Asylum Demon and she started to swing her sword when something coarse and leathery hit her on the side, and her world flipped upside down.

The demon had swung its arm and batted Lyn aside as if she was a ragdoll. She was tumbling through the open air as the roof of the asylum rushed forward to meet her.

"I'm sorry…Robin," Lyn whispered as she shut her eyes.

Then she felt an arm wrap around her waist, stopping her freefall.

"Sorry for what? You did nothing wrong," a familiar voice chuckled.

Lyn opened her eyes. She was suspended in midair above the asylum's rooftop. Turning her head, she saw Robin's hazel colored eyes warmly looking at her as he held her afloat with his arm.

"H-how?" Lyn stammered.

"I'll explain later, but taking that thing down takes priority," Robin pointed over his shoulder at the flying demon. "Ready for another flight?"

Lyn nodded.

"Great!" Robin grinned. "This time, however, I'll be supporting you."

Setting her on the roof, Robin entered the same stance as before to propel her. Lyn soared into the air again. She was curious as to how Robin would be supporting her from down there, but she got her answer when Robin suddenly materialized in front of the demon's face with his sword in hand, surprising both her and the demon. The Asylum Demon let out a surprised grunt before Robin swung his blade across the demon's good eye, effectively blinding it. With its vision lost, the demon started to flail its limbs about frantically.

Lyn watched in awe as Robin flew around the demon in circle and a moment after, both of the demon's arms and hammer were falling to the ground.

"Lyn! You're up!" Robin yelled from the skies.

"Got it!"

In a single stroke of her blade, Lyn swung her sword and sliced off the demon's wings at their base. The demon didn't have time to roar in pain when she twisted her body around and embedded Mani Katti into the demon's skull, the sacred blade piercing through flesh and bone. Wrenching her blade out, she kicked off the demon's head, letting gravity take care of the rest. She herself was in freefall, but not for long as Robin quickly caught her again.

"Nice job," Robin grinned.

"Couldn't have done it without your help," Lyn replied.

Robin started to descend with Lyn in tow as they watched the Asylum Demon crash onto the floor with a loud crash. A large cloud of dust erupted from the demon as Robin landed. The two readied their weapon in case the demon got back up. Much to their surprise, the demon's body started to disintegrate into a bubbling white light. A large ripple of energy spread through the area, dispersing the demon in its entirety. Soon there was nothing left of the large demon aside from the web of cracks on the flooring from the fall.

"That's…a little unexpected, but not surprising," Robin muttered. "Reminds me of how the Risen would die."

"Risen?" Lyn asked.

"Foul creatures from my homeland," Robin explained. "Dead bodies reanimated by dark magic by the Fell Dragon Grima."

"That's terrible…" Lyn said through gritted teeth. "Desecrating the dead like that is unforgivable."

"Yeah…" Robin quietly agreed. "Come on, let's head back."

He started walking forward when he accidentally kicked something at his feet. Looking down, he saw that the "something" he kicked was a large key made of bronze. That definitely wasn't something that was there before. He picked it up, not sure what else to do with it, and stowed it away in his coat.

The two walked back to the small bonfire where the knight was resting. Noticing their arrival, the knight looked up at them through his helmet's visor.

"I am pleased to see you both unharmed," the knight said.

"Thanks," Robin replied. "I gave the demon a large gash across one of its eyes for you."

Robin started to unlatch the sword attached to his side when the knight stopped him.

"Please, keep it," the knight said.

"Wouldn't that leave you without a weapon?" Robin asked.

"We knights of Astora always carry around a spare," the knight said, pulling out an elaborate dagger that was attached to his shoulder. "Please, do not worry for my safety. Even in my state, I am confident that I can handle a few Hollows."

Robin tilted his head. "Hollows?"

"Yes, those husks of men that you've seen around here," the knight explained. "They were once like us, but degenerated into that state as they lost their will and purpose to live. They no longer have any trace of humanity, and are mad creatures that will attack anyone that enters their sight."

"That's not unlike the Risen from my world," Robin said, comparing the two.

Even behind the metal visor, Robin could tell the knight was smiling.

"Will you be joining us?" Lyn asked the knight.

The knight pondered on the question for a brief moment. "Perhaps in the near future. I fear my wounds are still too deep for me to move just yet."

"I…I see," Lyn said, slightly disappointed. "I suppose this is farewell for now."

The knight nodded. "Stay safe, my friends."

"You as well," Robin said, giving the knight a light bow.

"May the flames guide thee," the knight said with a wave of his hand.

Robin and Lyn turned parted with the knight, walking back into the large room where they felled the Asylum Demon. Robin walked towards the set of metal doors on the opposite wall. He tried to open it, but it was locked shut.

"Maybe the key you found earlier?" Lyn suggested.

Heeding Lyn's words, Robin pulled out the large key he picked up a few minutes ago. At the center of the door was a large keyhole, which the key fit into snugly. With a loud clack, the doors started to open by themselves, revealing a short road and an open sky. A small set of broken stairs and walls could be seen ahead.

Cautiously making their way forward, the two ascended the steps. The broken walls to either side of them were charred black as was much of the ground around them.

"Wait...do you hear that?" Lyn suddenly asked.

Robin stopped, straining his ears, but all he heard was the howling of the wind. "No, nothing. What did you hear?"

"…strange…I don't hear it anymore. It sounded like a voice…like a…crow…" Lyn frowned. "Sorry, I must've been hearing things."

Nodding, Robin continued to walk up the steps. In front of him was a cliff. A mountain range could be seen off in the distance, their peaks shrouded by the low hanging clouds. Peering over the edge of the cliff, Robin felt a sense of vertigo. They were high above the ground, almost as if they were atop one of the tallest mountains, for that's how far away the ground was. Taking a step back, Robin shook his head to clear the feeling of nausea that started to settle in his stomach. He looked around for a way to leave, but found nothing.

"We're isolated…" he muttered.

"It's almost as if this place was built with the sole purpose to prevent anyone from escaping," Lyn said, standing next to Robin. "But why would - " She suddenly tensed.

"What's wrong?" Robin asked.

"I hear something…" Lyn said again.

For the second time, Robin strained his ears. There was indeed the sound of wings flapping, and they sounded powerful. Almost as if they belonged to a -

"GIANT CROW?!" Robin exclaimed.

A massive crow suddenly flew up from below the cliff. Each wing was nearly three times as large as Robin as loose black feathers fluttered out from the wings. Its beady black eyes shone with intelligence as it extended its talons. Neither Robin nor Lyn had time to react before the giant crow grabbed them both by its claws, and took off into the skies.

 _Whisked off by a giant crow after fighting a giant demon…what is wrong with this place and its oversized inhabitants?_

Next to Robin, Lyn was having the time of her life. She was laughing with her arms and legs outstretched as they soared through the skies in the clutches of a crow.

 _At least one of us is having fun…_

* * *

 **Ending Author's Note: Robin and Lyndis on a journey through the world of Dark Souls. Two of my favorite characters from the Fire Emblem series in one of my favorite games of all time, how could I not? This is NG+7, just saying.  
Why Dark Souls and not DeS, DaS2, DaS3, or Bloodborne? I have very limited playtime of DeS since I only got through one playthrough of it at my friend's house since I don't own a PS3/4, so I wouldn't be able to be as in-depth story-wise and lore-wise.  
DaS2 is my least favorite out of the 5 games, Bloodborne was a high contender, but seeing how I haven't played that in a long time, I've forgotten a lot of it. Not to mention I was only able to play for a week by borrowing my friend's PS4 and game.  
DaS3 was also a very high contender, but your character in DaS3 (the Ashen One) is one who failed to link the First Flame, so in order to do that, I'd have to write about DaS first.  
So, in the end, it fell down the DaS due to the reasons above. Not only that, I've accumulated _at least_ (huge huge emphasis on "at least") 1,623 hours into the game. I say "at least 1,623 hours" because a single file has a limit of 999:99:99 (hours, minutes, and seconds respectively) of playtime. My main character has more than that and I've deleted more than a few characters, so I've only counted the numbers that I can see on my save screen. So, with what I'm assuming to be ~2,000 hours of playtime in DaS, I have the most knowledge on it out of all the games in the SoulsBorne franchise. Am I bragging? Maybe a little. I'm a huge nerd, I know. This was back in highschool when everything was easy and I had no worries in life.**

* * *

 **Now, things to note on the story itself.**

 **The Asylum Demon normally isn't that difficult of an enemy. That is, if you've managed to get past the first couple of steep learning curves that the SoulsBorne franchise is notorious for. And as you journey through NG+ and NG+x, the fight gets considerably easier since you have +15 grade weapons and possibly +10 armor. But on your very first playthrough, I'm pretty sure every single person freaked out on what to do on that fight (and died. Don't lie and say you killed the AD in your first playthrough with that Broken Sword Hilt or your fists. There's no shame in admitting that you died in what's considered to be the tutorial of Dark Souls).  
That's the case for Robin and Lyn. I could've easily had them step over the Asylum Demon as I normally do in my playthroughs, but I'm treating this as my very first blind playthrough of the game. In a way, I'm recreating my own personal experience (reaction-wise, at least) through the perspectives of Robin and Lyn. Even with their combat experience and weapons, it took two attempts for them to kill the AD by using the power of gravity, since falling is the reason for 99% of my deaths now.**

 **As stated earlier in the first AN, this is an AU of FE:AA starting just after the Gangrel Arc. As for Lyn, her timeline has only gotten to her part of Blazing Blade, during that 1 year gap before Eliwood's story starts, which is why she only has Mani Katti and not Sol Katti.**

* * *

 **And that's the end for now! Hope you all enjoyed, and I'll see you on the flipside.**


	2. The Undead Burg I

"Hey, Lyn?"

"Yes?"

"How much longer do you think this bird is going to carry us? It's been quite some time now."

Lyn sighed. The amusement of being carried through the sky had quickly worn off as time went on. Her arms were dangling out in front of her as she was held between the talons of a large raven. Below her was a sea of grey clouds, almost like fog, as the raven soared through the sky. Next to her, in the clutches of the raven's other talon was Robin. His eyes were those of a dead fish as they mindlessly looked forward at boring sea of grey.

"I wish I knew," Lyn answered.

Robin groaned. "It's been at least an hour…maybe longer…yeah, I think it's been more than than an hour…" Tilting his head up, Robin glared at the raven. "Hey, raven! Are we almost there yet?"

"I'm not sure if it'll understand you," Lyn said.

"You never know," Robin replied. "Some animals are a lot more intelligent than you may think."

As if to answer Robin, the raven screeched before suddenly plummeting. The rapid descent caused Lyn's stomach to rise and next to her, Robin let out a nauseating sound as his face was drained of color. The wind howled in Lyn's ears as the raven continued to drop.

At long last, they broke free of the monotonous grey. Lyn gasped as she was greeted by a breathtaking view.

A grand city was sprawled out before her. A near golden glow was cast over the landscape as Lyn shielded her eyes from the sun's glare. Tracing the border of the city was an insurmountable wall that was built straight out of a mountain itself, spreading as far as the eye could see. Lyn's amazement turned into excitement, then to confusion as the raven flew lower and lower until they were below the wall. Descending even further, Lyn saw a glimpse of a menacing fortress that loomed in the distance with a large bell atop a building's roof. Then, she felt herself in a freefall as the raven released both her and Robin from its clutches.

Falling for a couple seconds, Lyn immediately fell into a roll in order to not break her legs on impact. Rolling onto one knee, Lyn looked around to get a grasp on her surroundings. The moment she tried, however, she was interrupted by a scream and a dull thud from just beside her.

Turning her head, she saw Robin sprawled out on the ground.

"That damn bird…" Robin's muffled voice was heard from the face-down tactician. Groaning, Robin slowly stood to his feet while glaring upwards into the sky. "I swear I'm going to roast that oversized piece of - dropping me like I was a sack of flour…I COULD'VE DIED FROM THAT FALL, YOU STUPID OVERGROWN PIDGEON!"

Lyn giggled as she also rose to her feet. Taking another look around, she was pleasantly surprised at her surroundings.

She was standing in the ruins of what looked to be an old shrine. Multiple stone archways leading further in could be seen to her right, with stairs made of a pale white stone. In front of her was a small firepit with another bonfire in the center. Ringing the fire-pit on the outer edge was were multiple archstones and an old dying tree was sprouting a little ways off the bonfire. Just behind the tree, Lyn was able to make out stairs leading further down into the shrine, and sitting on a mossy stone next to the stairs was a man in a set of chainmail armor. Nudging Robin on the arm to get his attention, Lyn started walking over to the man.

As Lyn approached, the man looked up at her. The first thing that she noticed that his eyes were almost lifeless, as if they belonged to one who lost his purpose.

"Well, what do we have here?" the man rhetorically asked. "You two must be new arrivals."

Lyn nodded. "Yes, my friend and I - "

"Let me guess; Fate of the Undead, right?" the man interrupted, to which Lyn could only nod. The very corners of the man's lips twitched upwards in a wry smile. "Well, you're not the first. But…you'd have done better to rot in the Undead Asylum… Too late now, I suppose."

"What do you mean?" Robin asked, walking up next to Lyn.

"It means that there's no salvation here," the man tiredly replied. "But, since you're already here, let me help you out. I'm sure you already know the legend of how the Bell of Awakening is to be rung by the 'Chosen Undead'." The man said the last two words in a mocking manner before continuing. "What they don't tell you is that there's actually _two_ Bells of Awakening.  
"One's up above, in the Undead Church." The man lazily pointed his finger in a general direction behind Lyn. She remembered catching a glimpse of a large bell atop a roof as the raven was descending. "The other is far, far below, in the ruins at the base of Blighttown." The man pointed at the ground." Ring them both, and something happens… Brilliant, right?"

"That's not - "

" - much to go on," the man interrupted again. "But I have a feeling that won't stop you."

Lyn frowned for two reasons. One was the lack of information that the man gave her, and two, for the disheartedness nature of the man. On the other hand, Robin seemed to be carefully mulling over the information. Lyn could practically see the sharpness of his mind through his eyes.

"So, off you go." The man waved a dismissive hand at the two. "It is why you came here, isn't it? To this accursed land of the Undead?"

"Wait, 'accursed land'? What do you mean by that?" Lyn asked, but the only response she received was a hollow laughter from the man.

It was clear that the man wasn't going to answer her question, so Lyn looked over at Robin. There was a slight gleam in his eyes, the same gleam that Mark would have when he would come across an epiphany or something of the sort. Noticing the gleam in Robin's eyes, the man narrowed his own.

"What, you want to hear more?" The man grudgingly said. "Oh, that's all we need. Another inquisitive soul." Letting out an annoyed sigh, the man continued. "Well, listen carefully, then…  
"One of the Bells is up above in the Undead Church, but the lift is broken. You'll have to climb the stairs up in the ruins, and access the Undead Burg through the waterway." The man pointed behind Lyn and Robin at a small aqueduct in the distance. "The other Bell is back down below the Undead Burg, within the plague-infested Blighttown. But I'd die again before I step foot in that cesspool." Sighing, the man leaned forward, resting his arms on his knees.  
"Now that I've said my part, off you go. And leave me alone, I'm not up for chatting."

 _. . ._

"So, what did you make of all that?"

Lyn and Robin were sitting by the bonfire. After the man shooed them away, the two sat down to decide their next course of action.

"Despite his cryptic way of speaking, he actually gave us a lot of information," Robin said. Looking over at the waterway that the man told them about, he narrowed his eyes. "Looks like we'll have to fight our way there, though."

Following Robin's eyes, Lyn looked over her shoulder. A set of stairs were built into the ground as it led towards a cliff edge. Four figures, each armed with either a sword or an axe, could be seen standing watch. Judging from their skeletal frames, Lyn assumed that these were the same as the hollowed men back in the Asylum.

"That shouldn't be much of a problem, should it?" Lyn asked. Her hand moved to the hilt of her sword out of habit.

"Not a problem," Robin grinned. He was about to get up when Lyn suddenly sneezed. Frowning, he looked over at her in concern. "Are you alright?"

Lyn sniffed, rubbing her nose as she dismissively waved her hand. "I'm fine, Robin," she assured him. "Just a weird feeling."

"Oh?" Robin raised an eyebrow. "How so?"

"Mm...it's a little difficult to explain, but I just remembered the first encounter with Mark." Lyn adopted a faraway look in her eyes as she stared into the bonfire. "I don't think I told you how I met him, have I?"

Robin shook his head. "You might have during the flight here, but honestly, I don't remember anything from that trip."

"Somehow, that sounds just like you," Lyn giggled before sighing. "I lived on the plains of Sacae, as I'm sure you've known through your history books. Funny, that makes me feel ancient just from saying that. Anyways, I was walking up to a hill that I went to often. There was a large tree there where I'd just sit down on. The breeze was really pleasant, one that you could just doze off to." Lyn paused as her eyes once again regained that faraway look.

"Then one day, when I went up to that tree as usual, I found a man on his back by the tree. As you've probably guessed, it was Mark. At first, I was wary of him since he was a complete stranger, but I couldn't just leave him there since he was covered in wounds. So, I took him to my home and treated his wounds as best as I could. A few days later, he woke up.  
Not long after we introduced ourselves, bandits attacked. I was going to fight them alone, but Mark surprised me by coming along. I was against it at first, seeing how he didn't have any weapons on him, but he didn't look like the type to take 'No' for an answer. It was a good thing that he came along too, since I wouldn't have been able to defeat the bandits were it not for him guiding me."

Robin smiled. Her story, rather Mark's, was quite similar to what happened to him.

"I still remember the leader of the bandits," Lyn continued. Clearing her throat, she deepened her voice in an imitation of the bandit leader. " 'You think you can stand up to Batta the Beast?'" Lyn softly smiled. "He sounded so confident, and had the brute strength to prove it. But Mark was able to find his weak spots and openings left behind Batta's attack, which I took. After that, we traveled across Elibe to meet my grandfather, making invaluable allies along the way."

Robin couldn't help but laugh. After retelling his tale to Lyn, she joined on his laughter, and the two sat in comfortable silence.

"We've both come a long way from fighting off a few bandits, haven't we?" Robin wistfully sighed.

"I agree." Lyn nodded at his words. "Even more so seeing how we've arrived in this strange, new land." Looking over, she gave Robin a small smirk. "You think you're up to the challenge of figuring out on how to leave this world?"

"Oh? What makes you have so much faith in a mere tactician such as myself?" Robin playfully retorted. "What could I possibly do with my humble brain?"

Snickering, Lyn stood up. "You're a smart person, Robin. I'm sure you'll figure it out."

Robin's face contorted into something of…irritation? Nostalgia? Sadness? Lyn couldn't figure it out.

"Robin?" Lyn called out, worried that she may have accidentally offended him with that line. "Are you alright?"

Robin blinked before quickly shaking his head. "It's nothing of importance," Robin answered with a smile. "Just…what you said…" Robin paused, choosing the right words to say. "…a few close friends of mine said that exact same things. I guess it reminded me of them.  
"And before you apologize, since I know you're going to - " Robin quickly added, and Lyn closed her open mouth. " - don't. As I said, it's nothing of importance, so it's nothing that you need apologize for."

Dusting his pants, he stood up. "Now then, shall we get going? Sitting around won't do anything for us."

Robin walked on ahead with Lyn only a couple steps behind. The stairs that the cynical man spoke of was nothing more than a narrow incline at a cliff's edge with a few mossy remains of a staircase. At the top of the 'stairs' was a slightly small, open staircase leading further up. Only, the stairs were also on a very precarious cliff edge with three of the hollowed figures in their way. One was directly in front of them, dressed leather rags and a battered helmet, another halfway up the stairs with the same gear as the first, and the third was all the way in the back at the edge of the cliff. The third one actually had a sword that wasn't broken and a shield, unlike the others.

As Robin advanced, the first two noticed them. Their movements were very much like the Risen; slow, jittery, predictable. Casually sidestepping the first Hollow's swing, Robin trusted his back to Lyn as he moved towards the second Hollow, who jumped off the stairs. A swift swing of his sword and the Hollow's crumpled to the floor along with its now-detached head.

Robin turned around to see Lyn flick the first Hollow's blood off her blade. Then, some fragile object hit him on the back, followed by the sound of glass shattering and his vision was covered in flames.

"Robin!" Lyn cried out.

Robin waved his hand, signaling her through the flames that he was fine. The flames lasted for only a few seconds and was as strong as a beginner mage's _Fire_ spell. Mildly curious as to what hit him, Robin turned his head to see a brown spherical…thing coming flying towards him. Easily batting it off the cliff to his right with a gust of wind, Robin's eyes searched the area to see where the brown object came from.

Just above the second staircase to his left, there was another one of the hollowed men. In his hand was the exact same brown thing that Robin deflected. The Hollow threw the object again, and this time, Robin slowed the object down with a very weak _Wind_ , easily catching the thrown object.

"Interesting," Robin mused, inspecting the thrown object. It was a round container made of what seemed to be porcelain. There was a small fuse on the top which Robin quickly put out. When he shook the item, Robin felt some sort of sand-like substance inside. He could've sworn he'd seen something like this in the past, though he couldn't figure out exactly when and where.

Without looking, Robin deflected another one of the thrown objects and sent out a bolt of lightning at the Hollow. The lightning pierced through the Hollow's head, instantly killing it.

"Lyn, has there ever been something like this in your world?" Robin asked, lifting the object in his hand.

Eyeing the object in Robin's hand, Lyn shook her head.

"Hmm…" Robin stared intently at the object once more when his eyes lit up.

"Robin? Have you figured something out?" Lyn asked. As she walked closer to the tactician, she warily eyed the hollowed man near the cliff's edge in case he'd run at them.

"Sure did," Robin smiled. "I just remembered one of the Shepherds, Miriel, and how she was experimenting on a bunch of different subjects. One such subject was on the matter of detonation devices that she called 'bombs'. I knew this looked familiar!"

Looking over at the Hollow at the cliff's edge, Robin's face took on a near evil looking grin. Pinching the tip of the fuse with his fingers, he relit the flame. Then he lobbed the firebomb.

Lyn watched as Robin's firebomb sailed through the air. The Hollow Knight didn't even try to dodge as the firebomb hit his chest. The porcelain casing shattered and Robin managed to catch a glimpse of a black powder from the depths of the firebomb before the small flame on top of the fuse ignited the black powder. The fire quickly roared to life, engulfing the Hollow in its entirety, before quickly dying out. As the last wisps of the fire flickered out, the Hollow's eyes momentarily flashed as it charged Robin.

There was a blur of green and blue from Robin's side as Lyn lunged forward with terrifying speed. A second later, Lyn was flicking blood off her blade once more before sheathing it as the Hollow's body lifelessly fell to the ground. Robin watched in minor amusement as the corpse rolled down the incline like a ragdoll and off the cliff's side.

"I had that completely under control, you know," Robin smirked.

"Well, you seemed to be having a lot of fun with that bomb of yours that I thought you'd be too distracted," Lyn countered.

Robin laughed. "Alright, maybe I _was_ having a little fun there."

They continued forward, walking up the steps that were next to them. Robin's face fell as he saw another set of stairs in front of him. This set of stairs ran parallel to the waterway in front of them, and a small doorway could be seen leading inside at the top of the stairs. And at the top of the stairs was another Hollow, equipped with a broken sword. What was up with these poorly maintained weapons and armor, Robin wondered.

Robin's hand reactively raised itself when a figure jumped out from behind the stairs with an axe raised. A quick cast of lightning and a guttural sounding grunt later, the Hollow was sent flying off the edge of the cliff.

"Spooky."

"You're quite adept in magic," Lyn said as she sliced down the Hollow at the top of the stairs. "In my world, no one would even think of casting magic without a tome or a magic circle."

"Same with my world," Robin replied, walking up the stairs. "I'm just an irregularity, along with my counterpart."

"Counterpart?" Lyn raised an eyebrow.

"Oh, that's right, I didn't mention that bit to you - OH GODS THAT REEKS!" Robin quickly covered his scrunched up nose as he entered the waterway. The pungent smell was similar to the odor that exuded off the Risen, only this was worse. "Gods, it's as if a rotting carcass of an animal puked up its digested dinner and then the digested dinner of said carcass shot out a pile of excrement covered bile from its rear!"

"That's quite the description," Lyn muttered, covering her nose as she followed Robin into the waterway. "But I must agree with you; this smell is not pleasant in the slightest."

Their feet made small splashing noises as they made their way through narrow tunnel of the waterway. There was a barred door further down, but Robin quickly exited through the first doorway he found on his left. The moment he stepped outside, he took in an exaggerated breath of air.

"Gods, that was worse than the smell of Sully's cooking!" Robin exclaimed between gulps of air.

After a minute of cleansing their systems of the waterway's stench, the two continued onward. They walked up the very narrow passageway in front of them, up a small flight of stairs, and came across what looked to a flat rooftop of a fort accompanied by a few more Hollows. One of them was carrying a small bundle of firebombs, which Robin gleefully took. The expression of his face was that of a child's when they would receive a new toy, though that wouldn't be far off in Robin's case. These firebombs _were_ toys in his eyes.

Moving through a small building and another flight of stairs (Robin's hatred for stairs was now climbing ever so slightly at this point), and exited through the upper portion of the building. Recalling what the cryptic man said back at the shrine, Robin figured that this area was the Undead Burg. True to it's name, the Undead Burg looked to be a hybrid of a town and a fortress. They were travelling across rooftops, and yet the very rooftops had more building stacked on top of each other, some of them looking to be houses.

Once again, a narrow walkway was their only way forward. Up ahead was a decently sized courtyard with shabby wooden barricades placed in one corner. Near the center of the courtyard was a poorly dressed Hollow Knight, looking eerily similar to the one that Robin threw the firebomb at not too long ago. They shared the same shield, broken armor, orange-lit eyes, and the wrinkly taut skin that showed their skeletal frame.

Sighing, Robin drew his sword as he moved to engage. Lyn followed close behind with her hand resting on her sword. Just as she was about to draw her blade, a large shadow darkened their view from overhead and -

*BOOM*

"GAAH!" Robin yelped, jumping back. "WHAT THE- DRAGON?!"

 _ **Actually, that's not a dragon. That's a drake. Notice the lack of four legs? It only has a single pair of legs along with wings.**_

 _Leave me and my panicking state be!_

 _ **Ungrateful, aren't you?**_

Clamping it's scaly leg down on the walkway in front of them was an enormous dragon-drake-wyvern. Robin's head was in too much disarray to decide as his eyes looked over the overgrown lizard. Its scales were red, like the color of fire. Four massive horns protruded from its head accompanied by countless smaller ones running down the length of its neck and body. Its wingspan was nearly twice the length of the giant crow from earlier, and the ends of each wing had tears and holes in them, signs of having fought through countless battles.

Giving Robin and Lyn a look that a self-glorified and conceited lord would give to a peasant, the drake flapped its mighty wings before flying off into the distance. Robin let out a breath that he didn't know he was holding before shaking his head to clear his mind.

 _What's the difference between a drake and a dragon? And a wyvern? I thought wyverns were the ones with a lack of four legs?_

 _ **Mm…the difference varies quite a bit depending who you ask. Some sources, such as a certain description of a certain sword from the tail of a certain dragon, will say that drakes are underdeveloped imitators of dragons, but are more likely a distant kin. Some have four legs like dragons, while others only have two, such as this one. Wyverns, as you're quite well informed on, are much smaller and only have a single pair of legs.**_

 _Huh, drakes are weird._

 _ **Indeed. But the easiest way to differentiate them would be by their sizes, that is, if they're adults. Dragons tend to be the largest with four limbs, then it's the drakes with either two or four limbs, and then there's wyverns, which are much smaller. There's also wyrms, but that's a different topic.**_

 _You are quite knowledgeable on these matters, aren't you?_

 _ **This is all knowledge that you've accumulated over the years, I hope you realize that. It's just that you don't know you have this knowledge nor memories while I have easy access to them since I'm living in your head.**_

 _Good to know. I'll be sure to ask you to access the database that's my memories when needed._

… _ **I'm not a librarian.**_

 _Congratulations, you just got promoted from a bum living in my head to the head librarian. Heh, get it? 'Head' librarian?_

… _ **Go concentrate on those Hollows approaching.**_

 _You're no fun._

 _ **Your puns aren't either.**_

Bringing his sword up, Robin parried the Hollow's sword. The Hollow's arm was thrown back in an exaggerated motion along with its arm that was holding its shield. As to how or why both arms were thrown aside when Robin only parried its sword, he didn't know, nor did he care. Turns out Lyn didn't care either as she took advantage of Robin's parry to plunge her sword through the Hollow's bony midsection. The amount of blood that spurted out from the Hollow's backside didn't make sense given the tiny frame of the body, but that made the second thing that Robin didn't care about in the past couple of seconds.

Lyn tried tugging at her sword to free it from the Hollow's limp body but failed. Lowering her sword a little, the Hollow's knees hit the ground as it was being held up by the Mani Katti in Lyn's hand. Placing a foot on the Hollow's chest, Lyn roughly shoved the corpse off her sword, freeing her beloved blade in a rough yet somehow still smooth motion.

Lyn walked onto the courtyard when Robin suddenly pulled her back.

"Wait," he cautioned, pointing to the wooden boards placed on the other side of the courtyard. "There's one behind that barricade in the corner and another up on that upper platform, most likely an archer."

Lyn looked at where he motioned to. Sure enough, she was able to see a rhythmic swaying motion on the other side. On the upper platform, the top of a helmet could be seen.

"How do you know it's an archer?" Lyn's tone was curious, not challenging.

"The upper platform is a perfect spot for an archer to be posted," Robin explained. "Away from courtyard, but still close enough for even an amateur to take accurate shots. At least, that's what I would do." He then held up his hand. Clenched in his fist was an arrow, only the shaft was much thicker than the standard arrows. "There's also this, which hit the ground next to me just as that drake landed earlier."

"Can you hit the archer with your magic from here?" Lyn asked. "With the archer out of the way, we'd be able to move forward easily."

"We'd be able to advance easily nonetheless," Robin confidently said. "But yes, taking down that archer will be easy. I trust that you'll handle the one behind the wooden barricades?"

Lyn nodded. Smiling, Robin walked onto the courtyard. The instant his foot stepped down, the archer poked his head out and the Hollow that was hiding behind the barricades came bursting out.

Turns out the archer wasn't holding a bow, but something very similar. His interest piqued, Robin decided to not call down lightning and simply knocked the fired arrow aside with his sword. With the help of a little wind magic, Robin propelled himself up onto the platform the archer was on. As he descended, he held his sword in a reverse grip as he plunged it down onto the archer. The blade pierced through the archer like a hot knife through butter, nailing it to the ground.

Wrenching his sword out from both the ground and corpse, Robin sheathed his sword before he pried the bow-weapon from the archer's hands.

"Very interesting." Robin adopted another childish grin as he inspected weapon in his hands.

It was a very simple looking weapon. It was almost as if someone attached a short bow the a narrow plank of wood with a groove in the center to hold an arrow. At the end of the plank of wood was a small protrusion which was used to keep the bowstring primed to fire. On the bottom side of the wooden plank was another small protrusion that could be pressed, and when pressed, it would lower the upper protrusion, releasing the primed bow string.

Robin clicked his tongue. If only he could bring this back to his world. Miriel would have a field day with this. But alas, he could only carry so much, and it wasn't as if he had some sort of bottomless box that he could carry around with ease.

Tossing the strange bow aside, Robin looked down at the courtyard to see Lyn looking back at him. Catching his gaze, Lyn raised an eyebrow and pointed the the adjacent wall where another small courtyard could be seen, connected to the first by another walkway. Stationed at the other courtyard were two Hollow Knights with shabby looking spears.

"Let's leave them be," Robin said. "Let's try and _not_ walk into fights."

Looking around, Robin saw a tower-like structure with an open doorway a few steps in front of him. And if he wasn't seeing things, then the familiar looking sword was…

"Lyn!" Robin called out. "Found a bonfire!"

A wide grin formed on Lyn's face as she ran over. Without even sparing Robin a glance, she ran over into the building that Robin was pointing to. Curious as to why she was so excited, Robin made his way inside the bonfire room to see the swordswoman holding her hand over the coiled sword. With a sudden flash of light, the base of the coiled sword was alight, casting a warm glow over the walls of the tower.

"I did it!" Lyn cheered.

"You mean lighting the flame?" Robin inquired.

"Yup!" Lyn nodded. "You lit the first bonfire back at the Asylum and the second since I was unconscious for that, so I wanted to try lighting one on my own. It'd be troubling if we somehow got separated and I didn't know how to light one, so I thought I'd try it out."

Robin smiled. "With great success, it seems."

"It was a lot easier than I expected," Lyn said as she sat down.

"Lemme guess, you put your hand over the coiled sword and literally willed for flame?" Robin took a seat opposite of Lyn.

Before Lyn could answer Robin's guess, the sound of something exploding shook the air, followed by the clash of metal, and a few more explosions.

"Someone's fighting." Lyn shot to her feet, grasping the hilt of her sword. "Let's go!"

"Damn it," Robin groaned, rising to his feet. "I just sat down, too…"

As they left the building, a plume of fire rose behind a building to their left.

"I think I found the person," Robin muttered.

Lyn frowned. The building wasn't actually that far away, roughly fifty meters away with a straight line from Point A (where they currently were) and Point B (where the fighting was taking place). But the only route to get there was to cross a narrow bridge that led into a separate building, which would force them to go around.

"How urgently do you think this is?" Robin suddenly asked.

"Very." Lyn's answer was immediate. "That person might be on his or her last legs."

Robin nodded, seemingly pleased with her answer. Turning around to face her, he smiled. "Alright then, we'll take a shortcut."

"Shortcut?" Lyn pondered. "I don't see any other way to get there."

Robin's smile grew wider. "You have to think outside the box. My shortcut is to jump."

Lyn's jaw dropped. The space between them and the area where the fighting was taking place was nothing but a very, VERY long fall. Surely the fall would be instant death for those who couldn't -

"Remember the Asylum Demon?"

Smiling, Lyn recalled the fight with the Asylum Demon, specifically, how both she and Robin took took to the skies with Robin's aid.

"Very well." Lyn nodded, taking a couple steps back before sprinting forward.

Just like before, Robin placed his hands underneath Lyn's foot, and threw her backwards over the wide gap. Immediately after, he took a couple steps back before performing a running leap of his own. As he soared through the air, he shot out a gust of wind beneath Lyn's feet to slow her fall in order for her to not break her legs upon impact. Lyn surprised him, however, as she used Robin's wind not only to slow her fall, but almost pushed off of it, gaining more height and acceleration.

"Ho, not bad," Robin mused as he watched Lyn easily clear the building and disappear behind it. "I hope the person there won't mistake us as an enemy…"

Gracefully landing on the roof of the building, Robin immediately ducked as a firebomb whizzed over his head.

 _Where - ? Oh…they're right there…_

Directly to Robin's left was a scaffolding with three Hollows on it. Two of the held firebombs in their hands while a third reached for another on from a pile behind it. Throwing out his arm in a wide sweeping motion, Robin released a powerful wind that pushed back both the now-thrown firebombs and their owners off the scaffolding and into the open air. Running forward, Robin was about to jump off the building and onto the ground below when a plume of fire suddenly rose up in front of him, forcing him stop.

"Yikes…that's some powerful stuff," Robin muttered as the flames died out.

Normally, Robin wouldn't have cared much for magic and elemental attacks as he was confident in his magic resistance. But after seeing the plume of fire, Robin instantly knew that this caster was powerful, possibly even more so than he was.

Cautiously peering over the edge, Robin saw Lyn fighting side by side with a girl with reddish-brown hair, held up in a ponytail. She was wearing a maroon one-piece battle garb, complete with a leather chest piece and combat boots. She even had a short purple cape on for some flair. In her hand was a regal rapier with an elegant guard and a blade that was faint golden glow to it.

All around the two swordswomen were the dead bodies of Hollows, either sliced apart of charred from fire magic. Robin watched as the new girl raised her hand. An orange glow surrounded her hand and a large, searing beam of fire shot out from her palm, incinerating any Hollow that was unfortunate enough to be in the way.

Only half a dozen Hollow's remained standing. Seeing how they were tightly grouped together, Robin called down a pillar of lightning on the undead as he casually jumped off the building. The girl quickly wheeled around, raising her rapier at Robin, who raised his arms in good will.

"Who are you?" the girl asked, taking a few wary steps back from both Robin and Lyn.

"Oh, come on," Robin groaned. "Hostilities? Me, I can understand since I literally jumped in. Well, to be fair, Lyn literally jumped into the fight as well, but she fought alongside you!"

Placing her hand on Robin's shoulder, Lyn took a step forward.

"I'm Lyn," Lyn introduced herself. "And this brazen one is Robin."

"Brazen?" Robin huffed.

"We mean you no harm," Lyn said, ignoring Robin's outburst. "We were traveling through the area when we saw your magic. Thinking that someone was in danger, we hurried over to aid you."

The girl silently eyed them. After what seemed like an eternity, she lowered her blade.

"Sorry, it's just…I don't even know what's going on here," the girl sighed. "I was helping out with the reconstruction of my village when I decided to take a small break. Then I see a blinding light and I'm suddenly transported here with my weapon and armor, things that I haven't used in almost a month. Then these… these things start attacking me, so I fought back."

The girl looked at them with hopeful eyes. "Please, if you know what happened, tell me!"

"We'd like to help, but I'm afraid we don't know much either," Lyn sadly replied. "Robin and I woke up in a prison-like asylum not even a day ago. After fighting a hideous demon, we escaped here. Now we're journeying across the land in hopes of finding a way back to our homes."

The poor girl looked ready to collapse. She closed her eyes and clenched her fists so tightly that her knuckles turned white. After a moment, she relaxed, slowly opening both her hands and eyes. The eyes that were wavering once before were now strong as she looked at Lyn.

"Can I join the two of you?" the girl asked.

"Of course!" Lyn replied. "Another companion is always welcome, wouldn't you agree, Robin?"

Robin nodded, and a large smile formed on the girl's face.

"Thanks!" the girl beamed. "My name is Jenna, a Mars Adept from Vale! Nice to meet you!"

 _ **Ba ba ba baaa~ Jenna joined your party!**_

 _...the hell?_

 _ **What? You didn't like my fanfare? It's reserved for when a new member joins your party!**_

 _Huh?!_

 _ **Your party consisted of only you and Lyn for now. Now you've a third member!**_

 _Oooookay?_

 _ **Now all we need is a fourth member for the usual four-man team that all - I'm gonna stop talking now.**_

 _Please._

The three continued forward. Walking down a small flight of steps, Robin's heart dropped as he saw a very long set of stairs out in front of him, which then turned left, hugging a wall that loomed over them.

"Freaking...stairs..."

* * *

 **And here's Chapter 2!**

 **Holy damn, I did not think this would take so long. I completely forgot how much environmental detail is in these SoulsBorne games. Normally, most games would just put them in just for some visual effects, but SoulsBorne games will usually put them in for a good reason, whether it's warnings or just a ploy to hide some secrets.  
That's the main reason why this chapter took so long to come out. I'm not really used to paying so much attention to the environmental detail when writing especially since **_**Fire Emblem: Another Awakening**_ **has almost none of that, so this is all new territory for me. If, by any chance, one of you readers has ever DM'd, and was a good DM, for a session of DnD, you know how it feels. It's especially worse here since the goddamned Burg has so many stairs, bridges, turns, and walking through doorways and buildings.**

 **And welcome Jenna, one of the main characters from the Golden Sun series! I put a lot of thought on which character to bring in from Golden Sun and ultimately decided on Jenna.  
I was originally thinking of Issac or Felix, the two faces of the games, while leaning more towards Felix. Why Felix instead of Issac? Because (*SPOILERS* skip this entire paragraph to avoid. If you don't care or already beat the game, continue on) without Felix and his group, Issac's group would've led the entire world to destruction. You were the **_**actual**_ **bad guy in the first game, while in the second, you play as who you thought to be the bad guy when they're actually the good guys.**

 **But yeah, Felix and Issac were put to the side since they're the standard knight class, and same goes for Garet. Piers…is still an enigma to me after over a decade, so no to him. Since I already have Robin and Lyn, a battle mage type and a dex build, I wanted to add in a magic user. I was thinking Mia (the main healer in pretty much both games), Ivan, or Sheba, but I have absolutely zero confidence in being able to portray both Mia and Shebe correctly. Why not Ivan? Cause he always dies. Sorry, gets "downed". Seriously, that guy has the lowest HP and Def rating out of ALL the characters. So yeah, that petty reason is the reason why he's not here.**

 **So, all those reasons above is why I didn't pick the other characters. Jenna, on the other hand, is the 'average' of the eight characters, which in a way makes her a great character since she has good both offensive and supportive capabilities, especially if you equip the right Djinn. That and her battle theme is one of my favorites.**

 **And that's all for now! Thanks for reading, and I'll hopefully see you soon!**

* * *

 **P.S. Why the hell are crossover stories limited to only two games? I want to add Golden Sun, but can't! Hmm…maybe I'll alternate between having the crossover being Golden Sun and Fire Emblem. Can't change Dark Souls since that's the main world, while FE and GS are only for the characters…that or put it in the story summary…hmm…**

* * *

 **For those of you who read this far, here's a little sneak into the next chapter and a certain character that the party will be meeting.**

"The sun is a magnificent body," _ said. "Like a wonderful father! If only I could be so grossly incandescent!"


	3. The Undead Burg II

There were only a few things that Robin disliked. In fact, he could probably count them all on his fingers. The things he currently disliked the most was the desert and sand. Though, that'd be two things, but both of them were hated equally to the point of loathing. Stairs, as Robin soon realized, was quickly climbing its way to the top of the list to overthrow the desert and sand as the things he hated the most.

"Robin, it's not _that_ bad," Lyn laughed, shaking her head. Her long green hair swayed back and forth, slapping Robin in the face a few times.

"Bleh - pfft - hair!" Robin sputtered, shooing the hair away, but not before sneezing.

"Sorry sorry." Lyn quickly apologized, but her tone made it obvious that she really wasn't sorry.

Sighing, Robin grudgingly moved his legs to climb up the literal tower of stairs. After meeting Jenna, the girl that he and Lyn rescued earlier, the three continued the only way forward, which was to scale a giant wall through the use of a tower. And stairs.

From above him, a rapid set of footsteps could be heard coming down the very set of circular stairs Robin and Lyn were climbing.

"Hey!"

Robin forced his head to look up to see Jenna descending from the floor above him.

"Jenna!" Lyn happily greeted the girl. "Back already?"

Jenna nodded, stopping a few steps above Lyn. She then started climbing up the stairs along with Robin and Lyn, keeping an easy pace.

"There's only a couple more levels left to climb," Jenna started, earning an exasperated groan from Robin. Ignoring the tactician, she continued. "We could climb higher to what I'm assuming is the top of the watchtower, but the stairs are destroyed. I don't think we can climb them."

"I see," Lyn frowned. "Anything else?"

"Yeah, there's a door leading to the wall of this place with most of the wall in ruins. I was going to continue forward but I got a bad feeling. The kind when you know something bad's going to happen, or when there's a very strong enemy waiting ahead. Not to mention there was this weird fog wall in the way."

Lyn knew that feeling all too well. It's happened to her a few times during her journey and it saved the lives of both her and her comrades more than a few times. Mark told her that the feeling is only something that a veteran gets after spending enough time in their respective fields of work. For example, an amateur thief may walk into a trap that was set out by the guards while an experienced one would either bug out or avoid the trap, depending on how dire their situation is. For fighters, the feeling would be one of warning, to either tell them that there's a formidable foe ahead or an ambush.

"Robin, your thoughts?" Lyn asked, looking over her shoulder.

Robin had his hand on his chin, his index finger curled over his lips. Part of him told him to go back and get some rest. He and Lyn have been moving around for quite some time now. Lyn didn't say anything, but Robin could tell that she was getting tired. Her exhaustion could be seen through her movements.

"We head back to the bonfire," Robin finally said. "If there's going to be a difficult opponent or opponents ahead, we'd best be well rested. You especially."

Robin glanced over at Jenna. Robin didn't know when it was the last she rested, but she looked just about ready to collapse at any moment.

"Ah ha ha~" Jenna's cheeks turned slightly red from embarrassment. "Was it really that obvious?"

"Just a little," Robin grinned. "Let's head back. The bonfire isn't too far from where we found you."

 _ **. . .**_

"And then the entire peninsula that we're on just breaks off the mainland!"

"No way!" Lyn gasped.

The three were sitting in the bonfire room. The girls were seated by the fire as Jenna was telling Lyn about her past adventures. Smiling from Jenna's storytelling, Robin continued to move around bags of flour. He had no idea what the flour was doing in the room, but he wasn't complaining. They were quite soft compared to the ground and would make for some decent makeshift beds.

"Well, don't stop there." Lyn looked like a child, eagerly waiting for her parents to continue telling her a bedtime story. "What happened after that?"

"Nothing eventful for a while," Jenna said. "Alex, Kraden, and I were stuck on that drifting island for who knows how long. I just remember being extremely hungry when Alex walked over to Kraden and I, telling us that there's something that we need to see. So, Kraden and I walk over to the shore of the peninsula, which was now technically an island, and…" Jenna paused, smiling as she recalled the memory. "I saw Sheba…and my brother, Felix…washed ashore."

"But, I thought they were at the Venus Lighthouse! Back on the mainland!" Lyn exclaimed.

"They were." Jenna nodded. "My brother never told me what happened, but my guess is that he and Sheba fell off the lighthouse during the tremors and into the water. From there, he must've seen our little island and swam over."

Robin dropped the bag of flour that he was currently carrying. The bag popped open, engulfing the tactician in a cloud of white powder. Lyn and Jenna both turned their heads to stare at Robin who accidentally inhaled a mouthful of flour and entered a coughing fit.

"Ah, sorry," Robin apologized, dusting himself of the flour.

He then pointed a finger at the broken sack of flour. Soon, faint, green glow surrounded his hand and a emerald wind shot out from his index finger to create a small funnel of wind. After the mini-tornado picked up all the flour, Robin directed the mini-tornado towards the room's exit where he dispelled his magic.

"Please, don't mind me," Robin said to Jenna.

Slowly nodding, Jenna continued telling her story to Lyn. Robin soon zoned out as he focused on creating three beds of flour bags. The crates thrown about the room would serve as the bed frames as Robin broke them down into planks. Using a bit of _Fire_ magic, Robin was able to soften up the metal parts of the crates to weld them to one another. By the time he was finished making the three beds, night had fallen.

"…and that stupid scorpion was so annoying!"

Robin finally listened in on Jenna's story. Just minutes prior, he remembered her saying something about entering a desert and falling into a pitfall created by a giant scorpion.

"Physical attacks would barely scratch its shell and our Psynergy barely did anything against it!" Jenna complained.

' _Psynergy'…_ Robin heard Jenna say that word a few times, and from what he was able to gather, it was essentially magic. It focused around the four elements of nature: Wind, Water, Fire, and Earth, each referred to as Jupiter, Mercury, Mars, and Venus respectively. Robin could've sworn he'd heard those terms from somewhere.

"In the end, Sheba was able to find a small chink in the tail's armor," Jenna sighed. "From there, I used _Impact_ on my brother and he was able to cut off the tail along with the stinger. Then, Felix stabbed the stinger through its head."

Robin raised his eyebrows. "Using its own weapon against it? Impressive."

"So, what about you two?" Jenna inquired, sitting up straight. "From the looks of it, the two of you must've have a lot of fun adventures!"

Robin and Lyn glanced at each other. Figuring that her story would be shorter than Robin's, Lyn decided that she would speak first.

"Well, my story isn't as grand as yours, I'm afraid," Lyn sheepishly said.

"Oh, come on," Jenna smiled, encouraging Lyn. "I'm sure you're just being humble!"

"Jenna's right, you know," Robin agreed. He then turned to Jenna. "In my world, Lyn's story went down in the legends and has been retold countless times by historians and bards alike. She herself is a woman of legend."

"Woaahhh." Jenna looked at Lyn with wide eyes.

Lyn's cheeks turned red from the unexpected praise.

"Wait a second…" Jenna's brow furrowed as she eyed Robin. "What you said… How do you know that Lyn becomes a legend?"

Robin blinked. "Ah, that's right! We haven't told you yet!"

"Huh?"

"Robin is from my time's future," Lyn said.

"Huh?!"

Robin sighed. "Simplest explanation, yet still somehow the most complicated:time travel. I honestly don't know much on it myself."

Jenna looked at the two incredulously. "What."

"Anyways, Lyn?" Robin gestured for her to begin telling her story.

"Oh, right!" Lyn's posture snapped straight. "Mm…where would be a good place to begin…?"

"How about from the point when you found Mark?" Robin suggested.

"Okay!" Lyn grinned. "That makes sense since my adventure started when I found him on that field."

"Wait wait wait!" Jenna yelled. Pinching the bridge of her nose, Jenna continued. "Are we going to just glaze over the fact that you mentioned time travel?"

Robin raised an eyebrow. "Yes?"

Jenna groaned into her hands while Lyn looked back and forth between the two.

"So…should I still tell my story?"

 _ **. . .**_

A headache induced sleep later, Jenna found herself walking behind Lyn and Robin as they made their way back towards the giant wall. The disgusting husks of men were back but in much smaller numbers compared to last time. She was impressed by Robin and Lyn's skill with a blade.

While Lyn wielded her sword in a very refined and graceful manner, Robin had none of that. Rather, his swings looked as if he was holding back unconsciously, as if he was missing a weapon.

What impressed her more than their sword skills, however, was their coordination - rather, Robin's coordination with the two of them. Jenna noticed that Robin would rarely initiate the fight. Instead, he would allow both her and Lyn to make the first move while he would act as their support. Whenever she or Lyn would make a strike, Robin would make a follow-up attack before the enemy had a chance to react. The timing was so well-timed that it was almost scary.

"How are you doing that?" Jenna finally asked.

They were nearing the enclosure where she first found herself in as they cut through another group of Hollows.

"You're going to have to be a little more specific than that," Robin replied, threading a lightning bolt between her attacks and onto an enemy knight.

"That. How are you doing _that_."

Robin tilted his head. "Magic? Uh…can't you use magic as well?"

Jenna facepalmed. This man was either playing dumb or was genuinely confused.

"No, I mean the - ugh…never mind," Jenna groaned.

Robin frowned. Then, his eyes lit up as he slammed his fist into his palm in a _I-got-it!_ Gesture.

"Oh! You mean my supports!" Robin exclaimed. "There's honestly not much to it. I've always been a little overly-perceptive of my surroundings. And since I've fought alongside my friends through more than a couple wars, I picked up the habit of just…I dunno…supporting them."

"Wait, _'_ _multiple wars'_?" Jenna inquired.

Robin waved her off. "That's for another time. For now, we should - "

"ROBIN! WATCH OUT ON YOUR RIGHT!"

That was the last thing that Jenna heard before a black blur slammed into Robin, sending him crashing into a wall. Jenna reflexively raised her rapier in front of her just in time as larger, and much heavier blade slammed into her own. She struggled momentarily to stay her feet, but the new enemy's strength overpowered her and Jenna was thrown back.

Painfully landing on her spine, Jenna instinctively rolled to her side. Not even a second later, something ridiculously heavy struck the ground where she originally was.

"Hyaah!"

As Jenna rolled to her feet, she heard Lyn let out a shout followed by the sound of metal clashing against metal. She looked up and the first thing that she noticed with its sword.

The sword was easily as tall as she was, yet the wielder was swinging it around like a toy. The second thing that Jenna noticed was the knight's armor. It was slender and narrow yet looked to be incredibly sturdy and was colored black. No, not black. Jenna could see that the armor was once a regal silver, only now, it was terribly burnt to the point where the metal became a black color. But no flame would permanently char metal to such a point. Not even the Adepts from Prox, known for their mastery over Mars Psynergy, were able to do such a feat.

A pained cry from Lyn brought Jenna back down to Weyard. Or Earth. Or whatever this land was named. Clutching her side, Lyn made an attempt to distance herself from the black knight, but the knight was a lot faster than it looked. Closing the gap within a second, the knight swung its weapon sideways.

Raising her arm, Jenna channeled Psynergy through her hands and at Lyn.

"Guardian!"

A red light coated Lyn like a barrier. It wasn't enough to fully protect Lyn as Jenna's _Guardian_ shattered like glass against the black knight's sword, but it was just enough to prevent her from getting sliced in two. However, the impact alone was enough to send her across the courtyard. Jenna immediately raised her arm and started casting another Psynergy before Lyn hit the ground.

"Aura!"

A warm, red-orange light surrounded Lyn as she barely managed to land on her feet. The deep gash on her side was started to close, but not nearly fast enough for Lyn to be able to fight anytime soon. With the Sacaen swordswoman out of the way, the black knight now turned its attention on the Mars Adept, who had just finished her incantation for _Aura_.

Having just enough time to raise her sword defensively, Jenna blocked an overhead strike from the black knight, but the force from the strike alone was enough exhaust most of her strength. Just as her knees buckled, the black knight's offhand lashed out, its fingers tightly grabbing hold of Jenna's neck. Unlike what she was expecting, the metal of the knight's armor wasn't cold. Rather, it was at the point where it felt like the armor was searing hot.

But the temperature of the armor was the last thing on Jenna's mind as the knight started to apply pressure, slowly squeezing the life out of Jenna. With no air reaching her lungs, her vision started to darken. In a vain attempt, Jenna hurled a powerful blast of fire at the knight's narrow helmet. Heat washed over her entire body, but when the fire died, the black knight's armor looked untouched.

Then, just as sudden as the knight's choke hold was on Jenna, the pressure on her neck vanished followed by the sound of crackling lightning. Limply falling onto the ground, Jenna's throat wrenched in pain as her windpipe righted itself. With her vision returning, she managed to bring her gaze up.

Robin was fighting the black knight on his own. With lightning dancing around his blade, Robin was able to meet the knight's weighty blows, but only just. Each parry would only buy him a half second's worth of time to bring his body back into a defensive position, and each block would push him back.

Mentally reprimanding herself merely watching, Jenna forced herself onto her feet. While she wouldn't be able to inflict any damage on the knight with her Psynergy and her arms too heavy to wield her rapier, Jenna had other ways to help out. If _Aura_ was for healing, and _Guardian_ for temporarily boosting one's defenses, then there would also be a Psynergy to boost one's attack.

Leaning on her rapier for support, Jenna raised her free hand in Robin's direction. She felt the warmth of Psynergy ebb from her chest, down her arm, and to the tips of her fingers.

"Impact!"

Another glow, similar to the one that surrounded Lyn earlier, surrounded the entirety of Robin's sword. True to the effect of Jenna's Psynergy, the next blow that Robin blocked didn't push him back. Rather, Robin seemed to brush the attack off with ease.

Effortlessly redirecting the black knight's blade, Robin swung low at its knees before using his momentum to spin on the balls of his feet to bring his sword down on the black knight's chestplate. There was enough power behind Robin's strike to create a large tear diagonally down the charred armor.

With creaking joints, the knight swung its shield at Robin, which he deftly ducked under. Stepping in, the tactician thrusted his sword into the opening in the black knight's armor that he created, a move that appalled Jenna. Such a position would leave Robin wide open to the black knight's attacks as he would be unable to move.

Jenna's confusion only increased when a grin formed on Robin's face; a grin that had absolute confidence in his victory. Her eyes then widened when a fresh burst of lightning, one that looked much more intense than before, coursed through Robin's blade and into the crevice of the charred armor.

But, even with lightning flickering across its body, the knight continued to raise his sword, held in a reverse grip in preparation to bring the blade down on the tactician's open back. And that's when the finale of Robin's plan unfolded.

"Lyn!" Robin called out.

"Already on it!" was Lyn's reply as she seemed to fly through the air, her sword raised and poised to strike.

Lyn's slender blade reached the black knight just a split second before the black knight's blade touched Robin. Piercing the visor in the black knight's helm, Lyn's sword punctured its way out through the back of the helm.

Violently shuddering, a silver-grey light rippled out from every crevice in the black knight's armor. Without any additional weight behind it, the blackened sword harmlessly fell and slid off of Robin's reinforced cloak, landing onto the ground with a dull thud. As the black knight started disintegrate, so did the knight's weaponry, and soon, nothing was left that remained of the black knight except for the damage it caused.

"Gaaaahhaaaahh!" Robin let out an exasperated sigh of relief. "That thing was brutal! I thought I was going to die a dozen times over!" Shaking his head, he walked over to Jenna while pulling out a small vial from the inner pockets of his robe and handed it to her. "Here. An elixir. It'll help out with your fatigue and wounds."

Jenna curiously took the small bottle from Robin's hand. The elixirs of her world were much different. While they came in similar sized bottles, the liquid's color was a golden brown, and held no healing properties. Instead, they acted as an all-around purpose medicine used to purge poison, dispel curses, and restore the nerves in one's muscles.

Nonetheless, she uncorked the vial and took a small gulp and gagged. While she was surprised to feel the pain in her neck fade, her surprise was practically overwritten by the foul taste in her mouth. The taste was just as vile as the ones back from her world; bitter, sour, and also incredibly salty.

"Yeah, they don't taste so good," Robin agreed, seeing her face contort. "But it gets the job done."

Capping the elixir, Jenna handed the medicine back to Robin.

"I could've just cast _Aura_ to heal myself," Jenna muttered.

"True true." Robin absentmindedly pocketed the vial. "But, that'd waste your mana, would it not? Which reminds me, your magic is absolutely astounding! How do you do it? Offensive, healing, and supportive magic? I've never even heard of the last one!"

Jenna took a wary step back from the overly eager man in front of her when Lyn came to her rescue by pulling on the man's ear.

"Robin, stop harassing her," Lyn scolded.

"I am not harassing her," Robin argued. "I'm merely - "

" - making her uncomfortable by pressing her with multiple questions at once?" Lyn finished, raising an eyebrow.

"It's the pursuit of knowledge!" Robin whined. "I can't help but be interested in magic I haven't seen before and…fine…I'll stop…"

"Thank you," Jenna said to Lyn.

"None needed," Lyn replied. "Now then, what now, Lord Tactician?"

Jenna's thoughts were to head back to the bonfire to rest and get their wounds tended to, but it turned out that Robin had a different plan in his head.

"We push onward." Robin casually rolled his neck, causing multiple popping sounds emanate from his bones. "Backtracking to the bonfire will take more time, not to mention that there's no telling whether or not the knight that we just fought has any friends. If so, I'd rather not take that chance at another fight like that."

"But if the knight does have friends, wouldn't they be waiting just up ahead?" Jenna asked.

"They might, but backtracking would give them more time for them to group up," Robin explained. "We were barely able to fight off just one of them with the three of us, so fighting even just two of them together would spell disaster, and not for them. By moving now, we can hopefully avoid any more possible knights and get back up to that tower. Once there, we can take a short break before taking on whatever it is that's gave off that dreadful presence from before."

Of course, Lyn immediately agreed. But while Jenna was still a little hesitant to agree as quickly as Lyn, there was merit in Robin's words.

"Alright." Jenna nodded. "Let's go with that."

Trudging forward, the three moved once more. And as before, Robin announced his severe dislike for stairs as they climbed up the spiral staircase that seemed to go on forever.

"Guuuuhhhhhh…"

Robin practically crumpled onto the ground when they reached the second to highest floor. They would have gone to the top, but the stairs leading to the was destroyed and boarded off, denying their advance. Which was completely fine, as there was a doorway on that floor that led outside onto the top of the wall, but that was exactly where the powerful aura was coming from. But Robin would worry about that aura later. Right now, he just wanted to rest from the excruciating climb that he just did.

 _ **So, let me get this straight... You can climb the Mila Tree back in your world just fine, but you struggle with a few flights of stairs?**_

Robin let out a low grunt that only he heard.

 _This and that are two different things._

 _ **You're right about that. The Mila Tree was thirty-one times worse than this one. And yes, I did the math.**_

 _Ugh… I could've sworn that were just as bad as each other._

 _ **They both have a winding stairwell of stairs, if that helps.**_

 _Just a little._

Robin tilted his head back, allowing it to lean against the wall. Sitting on the the adjacent side of the room, or as close as one could get to adjacent in a circular room, Lyn and Jenna were having another discussion about their pasts. He caught wind of Lyn comparing him to Mark, but knew well enough not to pry into their conversation.

 _By the way…_

 _ **Hm?**_

 _Have you discovered anything on this world?_

 _ **Only the things that you know of already.**_

 _Humor me._

 _ **Alright. I'm sure you've figured this out yourself, but this land that we're in, Lordran, is the very same land that you read of back in that ruined library in the Garden of Giants. You should pay homage to this land, as it's the very place where your lightning spear magic was derived from.**_

Robin closed his eyes as the recalled the countless hours that he put into crafting his magic. Many times, his attempts would end in failure, it wasn't until after he started shifting the magic from the _Thunder_ tome that his dedication bore fruit. Even now, he held onto it as a sort of ace, having only used it a few times after finalizing it after the _Thoron_ tome, once having been against Reina during their first meeting. But even then he had dialed down its destructive force in order to not harm the nearby Shepherds.

 _ **Perhaps there may even be a chance that you'll meet the Ancient Lords of Lordran. The First Lords, I mean. From what I've seen, the nameless warrior has yet to make an appearance, so the Age of Fire is still burning.**_

 _Heh, I never thought that I'd be visiting a land of legend._

 _ **We may even get a chance to run into the exiled son of one of the First Lords!**_

 _As if that'd ever happen. How would we even know if it's him in the first place?_

"Robin?"

 _ **Like I'd know. He's the son of the Lord of Sunlight. Maybe he has an obsession with the sun or something.**_

 _If he was exiled by his father, shouldn't it be the exact opposite? Shouldn't he hate the sun?_

"Robin!"

 _ **That is a good point.**_

 _Besides, who's to say that -_

*WHAP*

"Gah!"

Clutching his head in pain, Robin looked up with stinging eyes. Jenna and Lyn were both standing over him, the latter's scabbard hovering just above Robin's head. It didn't take a brilliant mind such as Robin's to realize that Lyn hit Robin over the head with her sword's scabbard.

"Yes?" Robin wailed. "Can I help you?"

"We're going." Lyn gave Robin a teasing smirk.

"I don't suppose we're going _away_ from that fog door-wall thing that most definitely does not have a big baddie waiting behind it?" Robin hoped.

"Not a chance," Lyn grinned.

Robin sighed. "One can dream, I suppose…"

With a small groan, Robin rose to his feet. Dusting off his hands, he walked towards the fog door. With both Jenna and Lyn standing behind him, Robin gingerly placed his hand on the fog. He met the usual resistance, but with a bit of pressure, his hand slipped right into the grey wall.

However, the moment his right hand entered the fog, a chill ran down his spine as the hairs on his neck stood on their ends. On instinct, Robin hastily channeled mana through his arm and created a barrier that honeycombed out from his palm. Not a second later, there was an unearthly sounding roar from behind the fog, followed by something tremendously heavy slamming into his barrier.

Oddly enough, Robin was reminded of his fight with the Asylum Demon from not too long ago. He then realized why he thought of the Asylum Demon as his barrier held for a second before shattering, and he was bludgeoned in the chest by a slab of what looked to be stone that was as tall as him.

 _Crap…_

This single thought ran through Robin's mind as he both heard and felt a few ribs crack before he was thrown across the room and into the opposite wall.

Robin coughed and felt something escape from his throat. Having hit the back of his head onto the wall, his vision was fuzzy, but going by the metallic taste in his mouth, he made an educated guess that what he coughed up was blood. Not too surprising seeing how he just got hammered in the chest by a solid chunk of rock.

 _ **That makes twice.**_

 _Oww - huh?_

 _ **Twice you had your barrier shattered by a single attack from a giant weapon.**_

 _At least I'm still up and kicking…_

Groaning, Robin forced himself onto his feet. He took in a deep breath and immediately regretted it as the action caused a sharp pain to course through his chest.

"Yep, definitely a few cracked ribs…maybe even broken…" Robin muttered to himself.

"Robin, are you alright?" Lyn asked, her voice racked with worry.

"I'm not dead, if that's what you're wondering," Robin croaked.

Downing an elixir, Robin felt the pain in his ribs ebb away. That didn't mean that his ribs were healed, however, only that he wouldn't feel the pain for a little while. Which, of course, meant that the fight coming up with whatever it was behind that cloud of dust had a time limit before Robin would be incapacitated from his ribs.

As the last of the dust cleared, Robin was finally able to see what it was that attacked him.

"Hey…Lyn?" Robin squeaked. "Tell me that's not a giant humanoid figure with a bull's head."

"That's not a giant humanoid humanoid figure with a bull's head. That's the head of a taurus."

"I don't need your sass right now, Lyn," Robin grumbled.

"That wasn't sass."

"Preeeetty sure it was."

"And I'm pretty sure it wasn't."

"Need I give you the definition of the word?"

"Can you two please stop flirting?!" Jenna cried out.

"We are NOT flirting!" Both Robin and Lyn exclaimed.

Rolling her eyes, Jenna looked back at the taurus monstrosity and so did the bickering duo. What stared back was a monster the size of the Asylum Demon. Only this time, it had a beastly look to it, in the literal sense.

It's head was a solid skull of a taurus cattle. Giant horns curled downwards from the top of its skull. Two giant fangs protruded upwards from its lower jaw and its eyes were nothing more than sinister looking yellow lights. Its skin was a leathery grey while brown fur covered its arms, legs, and back, but even the thick hide failed to conceal the monster's bulging muscles.

"Seriously? Again with the oversized whatevers?!" Robin groaned. "First, there was that fatass demon back in the Asylum, then that stupid bird, then that damned overgrown winged lizard, and now this?! Are you a demon, as well? I bet you're named something creative, like _'_ _The Taurus Demon'_ or something…"

"Now is not the time for this, Robin," Lyn sternly said, readying her sword.

"No, now is EXACTLY the time for - oh, shut up you stupid boar!"

Robin snapped at the Taurus Demon who roared twice; once in the middle of his sentence and once after being called a "stupid boar" by Robin. Roaring for the third time, the Taurus Demon raised its weapon; a ridiculously sized thing that looked like cross between a staff and an axe made of a pale yellow stone. The 'blade' was permanently stained a rusty red color, and the end was horrendously dull, looking to be designed more for smashing enemies to a pulp rather than cutting them in half.

With a single swing, the demon's weapon broke through the walls of the tower, a large portion of said tower's roof, and the floor that Robin, Lyn, and Jenna were standing on. Casting magic on himself, Robin warped over Lyn, grabbed her around her waist, then warped over to Jenna, all the while they were in freefall. With another casting of magic, Robin rematerialized on the remains of the tower's roof with both Lyn and Jenna in tow.

Upon landing on a solid surface, Lyn collapsed onto her knees as her face paled and began dry heaving, a reaction that was not shared by the other two. Glancing away from Lyn, Robin looked around him. Then his jaw dropped.

From the roof of the watchtower, Robin struck by a breathtaking view. A pale blue sky stretched on into the horizon. In the distance, rays of golden sunlight broke through a blanket of clouds, illuminating a mountain range underneath.

Looking down, Robin was able to get a scope of the area. He knew that the land that he was in was big, but he didn't expect it to be so vast. A labyrinth of towns, bridges, and gated entryways were sprawled out in front of him, all leading towards a central mountain in the distance. Built onto the mountain itself, another wall could be seen stretching into the skies, a wall that made the one that Robin was currently on look like a small fence in comparison. Through all this, Robin could only imagine what this land could have looked like during its golden age.

Despite being a shadow of its former self, Lordran was a beautiful land, only, a portion of the beauty was stolen away from Robin by the insufferable growls Taurus Demon standing atop the wall and the retching noises coming from his ailing friend.

"First teleport?" Jenna asked her downed companion.

Seeing how Lyn was in no shape to answer, Robin answered for her, "Most likely." Then, to her, "You seem okay, though."

"Not my first jump." Jenna shrugged. "My brother learned the _Teleport_ psynergy near the end of our journey. After lighting the Mars Lighthouse…never mind. Point is, I'm no stranger to teleportation, but I _am_ surprised at how easily you can teleport, and how accurate you are with your jumps."

"Laying it on a little thick there, aren't you?" Robin chuckled. "And my teleports aren't easy as they seem. Each jump consumes a chunk of my mana, and the more accurate I need to make them, the more concentration I need. But, enough of that. I believe a little, rather, big problem should be taken care of first, don't you think?"

Nodding, Jenna turned her attention to the Taurus Demon, who was growling at the trio up on the roof. Since its previous attack had destroyed the front portion of the tower's roof, and since Robin and teleported both himself and the girls to the opposite side of said roof, the Taurus Demon had no way of reaching them.

At least, that's what Robin hoped.

His hope was shattered in a second.

Using its powerful legs, the Taurus Demon leapt from the wall.

"Oh crap…" Robin muttered, placing his hands on the shoulders of Jenna and Lyn. "Sorry about this, Lyn!"

"Sorry about what - urp!"

Rematerializing on the top of the wall, a good distance away from the tower's roof, Lyn immediately ran over to the edge. What came next was most definitely not a dry heave.

"That. I'm sorry about _that_ ," Robin said, feeling drained.

 _Four jumps in only a few minutes, and with only one of them being a solo jump… I'll be running on fumes at this rate, not to mention the elixir's numbness is going to wear off soon._

 _ **That thing has a lot of fur. Fur tends to be flammable. You have a very adept fire mage with you. Kill it with fire.**_

A devilish grin formed on Robin's face. "Jenna. Fire. Fur."

The Mars Adept didn't need to be told twice as she drew her rapier and pointed at the Taurus Demon, who was looking around for its suddenly vanishing prey. A warm glow surrounded the elegant blade as Jenna channeled her Psynergy. A moment later, a magic circle the size of the Asylum Demon and decorated with countless runes appeared over its head. The runes started to glow with a fierce intensity, and the Taurus Demon looked up just in time to see the magic circle spit out a fireball that was four times the size of the Taurus Demon's skull.

"Woah…"

Robin had to shield his eyes from the glare of the fire magic. A scorching wind hit Robin in the face from the force of Jenna's Psynergy, and before the flames of her first Psynergy dissipated, Jenna raised her rapier once more. After another second of concentration, a plume of fire rose out from underneath the Taurus Demon. The flames started twisting until they formed the head of a dragon, creating the image of the rising dragon with its prey clamped between its maw.

Just when Robin thought the Mars Adept was finished, she surprised him by summoning flames to surround her blade. The fire then shot out in a very similar fashion to her previous Psynergy as serpent of fire, complete with a dragon's head, rose into the skies. Unlike the first one, however, this fume rose much faster than the previous as it overtook the first before arcing back down to meet the first plume of fire with the Taurus Demon stuck in between both Psynergies.

The collision of the two Psynergies created an explosion so intense that it shook the very ground that Robin was standing upon, and for a second, Robin thought there was a second sun in the sky before reminding himself that it was only an explosion due to Jenna's twin fires.

It was then Robin made a solemn vow to never, EVER, anger this girl.

From the miniature sun in the sky, a trail of fire separated from the main body, almost like a meteor. It fell onto the same wall that the two spellcasters plus one incapacitated swordswoman were on, creating a cloud of dust and black smoke alike.

The consecutive casting of devastating Psynergies took its toll, however, as Jenna was now leaning heavily onto her rapier as support. Due to this fatigue, Jenna would be in no condition to move when the Taurus Demon would come running at them. Which it did.

From within the cloud, a bloodcurdling roar shook the air. Quite literally, in fact, as the cry scattered the smoke and dust into the wind. What remained was a terrifying sight of a flame-lit demon. Even with glowing lights as its "eyes", there was no doubt that it was harboring a severe hatred for one that inflicted so much pain upon it. Robin knew that look well, as it was very look that he received from the Asylum Demon after cutting off it's tail.

With a snot filled snort, the Taurus Demon stomped on the ground before it bounded over towards them at a frightening speed. Robin quickly summoned a bolt of lightning which crashed down onto the back of the demon's skull, but it continued to run undeterred. It swung its axe down on Jenna, which was deflected by a lightning reinforced kick from Robin, who then followed up by spinning on his toes and delivered another blow to the demon's ankle, momentarily crippling it.

"That…I thought that'd…that it would've…been enough…to defeat it…" Jenna gasped between breaths.

"I thought so too," Robin agreed. "That is, until it landed on the ground. Stupid beast can take some hits."

Uttering a low growl, the demon righted itself from Robin's blow as it raised its arm in preparation for another swing. In a similar fashion, Robin also raised his arm as mana coursed through his veins.

"Obex!"

The demon brought its weapon down, its heavy blow crashing against Robin's barrier. While the previous two barriers shattered instantly upon creation, this one was not hastily crafted as it withstood the mighty blow. A few cracks appeared at the demon axe's point of impact, but it held. The demon then slammed its fist against Robin's barrier, and Robin winced under the pressure of both the axe and fist.

 _Not good. The elixir's effect is going to wear off any moment now. Jenna also seems to have used up most of her mana in her opening salvo of magic, so I doubt she'll be able to use that healing magic from earlier. I don't think she can even move as of now._

Another blow against Robin's barrier.

 _Not to mention I'm also running low on mana. Keeping this barrier up is sapping my reserves._

The barrier began to splinter as shards of the hexagonal wall started to break off and dissipate into white light.

 _Why do you have so much damn strength, you goatish, clay-brained, milk-livered bull?!_

Robin could hear Alternis laughing in his head.

"Robin, dispel your barrier after the next hit!"

Lyn was back on her feet. Some color had returned to her face as she gripped Mani Katti tightly.

"I hope you've got a plan," Robin said. "Not like I can hold this barrier for any longer anyways."

"Not much of a plan. It's more like an idea," Lyn replied.

The demon raised its weapon once more.

"I'll be taking one of your moves, by the way," Lyn added just as Robin's barrier shattered from the Taurus Demon's blow.

Before Robin could ask, _"_ _What move?"_ , Lyn dashed forward, showing no signs of her nausea from earlier. She jumped onto the Taurus Demon's lowered weapon and continued to run before leaping off of the giant axe and onto the monster's massive bicep. Kicking off once more, Lyn grabbed onto one of the Taurus Demon's curled horns and swung herself onto its back. Twirling her sword in her hands, Lyn held Mani Katti in a reverse grip before plunging the blade into the Taurus Demon's neck, mimicking Robin's actions from their first encounter with the Asylum Demon.

"Oh…that's what she meant…" Robin muttered as he collapsed onto his knees from exhaustion.

Even as it roared in pain, the Taurus Demon managed to reach up and grab Lyn before she could jump off.

"K-KyaaaaAAHHH!"

Lyn let out an agonizing cry as the Taurus Demon tightened its grip. Dull cracks could be heard as her bones cracked under the immense pressure.

"Lyn!"

Robin desperately made an attempt to stand on his feet. The numbing effects of the elixir from earlier had worn off, and his side was screaming in pain. From his peripherals, Robin saw Jenna struggling to raise her blade.

Both Robin and Jenna's blood turned to ice when Lyn's cries suddenly ceased. Whether she was dead or simply unconscious, he didn't know, but Robin was desperately hoping that it was the latter. Then, Jenna vanished from the edges of Robin's vision and reappeared near the center as she rushed forward and jumped.

The Taurus Demon let out a very bored sounding grunt as Jenna's rapier pierced its chest. Tossing Lyn aside as if she was worthless piece of garbage, the demon grabbed Jenna and hurled her at another watchtower behind Robin. Jenna's body crashed against the tower before she fell onto the ground, lying limp. Witnessing the fall of both his companions infuriated Robin, but even with all his rage, he was still rooted to that very spot, unable to move.

The demon then turned its attention to Robin, the sole standing member of the group, and Robin could've sworn that it smirked at them. It reared its arm back in preparation for another blow, and Robin noticed that the demon was confidently resting its axe on its shoulder. It was a silent message; the Taurus Demon had no need for a weapon to crush him. A single arm would be enough. Said arm was now headed straight for Robin.

"You smug bastard…" Robin growled.

With a roar that matched the Taurus Demon's, Robin mustered up the last of both his mana and strength to meet the Taurus Demon's fist with a lightning coated fist of his own.

Robin succeeded in pushing the giant fist back, but not without consequences. He felt like his arm was ripped from its socket as the force of meeting the Taurus Demon's fist head on sent him flying backwards. He nearly blacked out from the pain when he landed on his shoulder.

 _ **Dislocated shoulder, broken knuckles, cracked ribs, and complete mana depletion,**_ Alternis counted off in Robin's head. _**Should I add 'dead' to that list as well?**_

 _Awfully calm, aren't you? If I die, you die along with me, so you won't be able to add that to your list before you're gone._

It took all of his willpower to stay conscious, but Robin knew that his being awake wouldn't help. Jenna and Lyn were either unconscious or dead, and seeing how the Taurus Demon was slowly approaching the incapacitated tactician, Robin made an educated guess that he'd follow suit soon enough.

The world darkened around Robin as the Taurus Demon loomed menacingly over him, blocking the sun. Blood, a little darker colored than normal, seeped from the both the hold in its chest and down its shoulders from the wound Lyn inflicted upon him. Severe burn marks could be seen scattered throughout its body, and it even had a slight limp from Robin's kick from earlier.

"Considering what we were up against, I'd say we did pretty good," Robin darkly chuckled.

 _Ah, crap,_ Robin thought. Above him, the Taurus Demon raised its axe one last time for the finishing blow. _This means I won't be able to help Chrom in the upcoming war with the Valmese. Welp, nothing I can do about that. Though, he_ does _have Reina with him, so I'm sure the Shepherds will pull through. Unless me dying here brings me back to Ylisse? Ha, wouldn't that be a laugh._

Closing his eyes, Robin braced himself for the Taurus Demon's greataxe. What he didn't expect was to hear the crack of thunder followed by the Taurus Demon's cry of pain. He heard armored footsteps approach from behind him, another crack of lightning, and another savage cry from the demon before he managed to open his eyes.

The first thing Robin saw was lightning dancing around the demon's body as the giant writhed in pain. A third crack sounded, and a spear composed of lightning seemed to sprout from the center of the demon's chest. The Taurus Demon weakly clawed at the lightning spear before it crumpled to its knees. Then, very much like the Asylum Demon did, the Taurus Demon's body started to dissipate before a ripple of energy from the now-transparent body scattered the bubbles of white light.

The threat of the Taurus Demon now gone, and Robin's eyes started to close once more. As his eyelids started to droop, he saw a man in a bucket shaped helmet with a red feather sticking out from the side of the helm. Maybe it was from Robin's grogginess, or the trick of the light, but the stranger seemed to glow like the sun. Or maybe he was glowing. Robin couldn't tell.

Then, despite the sun-like stranger standing in front of him, Robin's vision turned black.

 _ **. . .**_

* * *

 _ **. . .**_

 **No Solaire for you this chapter. :)  
** **Well, maybe a little. Just a tiny, TINY little tease.**

 **Thank you to everyone who reviewed. It really does mean a lot. :)**

 **Little bonus game that will earn you no rewards: Which three Psynergies did Jenna use against the Taurus Demon? Two should be easy, while the third might be a little more difficult.**


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